Like Franz Kafka's The Trial for the post-truth era, at once "surreal, polemical, and fun" (The Telegraph). Sterling Beckenbauer is plunged into a terrifying and...

Like Franz Kafka's The Trial for the post-truth era, at once "surreal, polemical, and fun" (The Telegraph).

Sterling Beckenbauer is plunged into a terrifying and nonsensical world one morning when they are attacked, then unfairly arrested, in their neighborhood in London. With the help of their friends, Sterling hosts a trial of their own in order to exonerate themselves and to hold the powers that be to account.

Sterling Karat Gold, in the words of Kamila Shamsie, is "a madly brilliant and deeply sane novel that reveals surrealism as possibly the most effective way of talking about the political moment we find ourselves in." In it, Isabel Waidner concocts a world replete with bullfighters, high fashion, DIY theater, the Beach Boys, and time-traveling spaceships. The acclaimed winner of the 2021 Goldsmiths Prize for fiction that breaks the mold and extends the possibilities of the form, this novel explores the phantasmagoric nature of contemporary life, especially for nonbinary migrants, and daringly revises how solidarity and justice might be sought and won. Sterling Karat Gold couldn't be a better North American introduction to a writer with an irresistible style and unforgettable vision.

Author: Isabel Waidner
Publisher: Graywolf Press
Published: 02/07/2023
Pages: 192
Binding Type: Paperback
Weight: 0.55lbs
Size: 8.20h x 5.40w x 0.40d
ISBN: 9781644452134


Review Citation(s):
Publishers Weekly 12/12/2022
Kirkus Reviews 01/15/2023

About the Author
Isabel Waidner is a writer based in London. They are the author of Sterling Karat Gold, We Are Made of Diamond Stuff, and Gaudy Bauble. They are the winner of the Goldsmiths Prize 2021 and were shortlisted for the Goldsmiths Prize in 2019, the Orwell Prize for Political Fiction in 2022, and the Republic of Consciousness Prize in 2018, 2020, and 2022. They are a co-founder of the event series Queers Read This at the Institute of Contemporary Arts, and they are an academic in the School of English and Drama at Queen Mary University of London.