Though Death in Her Hands was initially set for an April release, it was among the many prominent spring titles pushed back to the summer it now enters a world in which we have all been enduring varying degrees of solitude, and reconstructing our understanding not only of the world around us and the once-solid institutions that suddenly seem so frail, but also of ourselves. Moshfegh’s latest novel, Death in Her Hands, further explores the effects of isolation on a person, the way in which extreme solitude warps our perceptions of reality, and maybe even shifts reality itself. Moshfegh’s prior books-particularly the twisted, body horror-saturated mystery, Eileen, and the longing-filled short story collection, Homesick for Another World-have also been recently singled out as particularly emblematic of a culture that feels hopelessly fragmented, one where community isn’t reliant on actual human interaction, but rather is coordinated via online platforms, while users sit at home-alone, together. Perhaps no book was more represented across these pandemic reading lists than Ottessa Moshfegh’s 2018 novel, My Year of Rest and Relaxation, a perverse paean to self-isolation as a coping strategy for when the world is somehow both too much and yet not enough. The sheer volume of these lists made clear that, though society might be on the brink of total collapse, well, at least there’s good stuff to read.
There were lists of short books (“read it in one sitting”), lists of long books (“you’ve got nothing but time on your hands”), lists of dystopian books (“they suddenly seem all too real”), lists of disease-filled books (“you’ll never want to leave your home again”), lists of escapist books (“everyone deserves the chance to forget All This for a little while”), and lists of books about solitude (“let’s figure out how to live without ever seeing anyone else again”). It’s been just over three months since the lists of books started proliferating.
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