Machine

She's one of the stars of the shore this summer; one of the girls who doesn't care what she's drinking or what pill she's taking; who ties perfectly knotted cherry stems with her tongue; her family is rich and she's untouchable. Except her parents' marriage is in brutal collapse and her brother is violently lashing out, the community around her wracked with suspicion and guilt. As her identity unravels, she circles back to the night that a local girl drowned, and no one tried to save her.

Daringly experimental, Machine is a kaleidoscopic interrogation of gender, class and privilege, an unforgettable rendering of youth spinning out of control.

'There is innovation and beauty and exactitude in language here but these is also raw, undeniable power and rage. A brilliant read' - Daisy Johnson

'This summer's real powerhouse... If you like your prose propulsive, unflinching and disturbing, this is going to be the one for you' - Eimear McBride

'Steinberg shifts backwards and forward in time, just as her prose shifts into a kind of poetry. The result is a glittering, knifelike reflection of despair through the eyes of a young woman, made richer by the fact that it's told in hindsight' - New Yorker

'Otherworldly, and every-other-line sublime, Machine reads like the text messages Laura Palmer might send back from the Black Lodge. It's a timely reminder of why our culture remains haunted by dead girls, and of the different ways we find to drown them' - Bennett Sims

'Her slim narrative of adolescent crisis is as propulsive as it is disorienting, subverting expectations at every turn' - The Atlantic

Susan Steinberg is the author of Spectacle, Hydroplane, and The End of Free Love. She is the recipient of a Guggenheim Fellowship, a United States Artists Fellowship, a National Magazine Award, and the Pushcart Prize. She teaches at the University of San Francisco.

A jagged, propulsive story of guilt and youth spinning off its axis in the wake of a drowning. She's one of the stars of the shore this summer; one of the girls who doesn't care what she's drinking or what pill she's taking; who ties perfectly knotted cherry stems with her tongue; her family is rich and she's untouchable. Except her parents' marriage is in brutal collapse and her brother is violently lashing out, the community around her wracked with suspicion and guilt. As her identity unravels, she circles back to the night that a local girl drowned, and no one tried to save her. Daringly experimental, Machine is a kaleidoscopic interrogation of gender, class and privilege, an unforgettable rendering of youth spinning out of control. 'There is innovation and beauty and exactitude in language here but these is also raw, undeniable power and rage. A brilliant read' - Daisy Johnson 'This summer's real powerhouse... If you like your prose propulsive, unflinching and disturbing, this is going to be the one for you' - Eimear McBride

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