Category: Surreal
READ FOR BOOKERTHON The End of Everything is a speculative novel set in a future where an unexplained crisis has transformed the world, and strange new life forms coexist with humans. Phillip Tennent makes his living collecting artefacts washed ashore from the English Channel,… Continue Reading “The End of Everything – M John Harrison”
Category: Absurdist, Adventure, Booker Prize, Dystopian, Existentialist, Experimental fiction, Faith & Religion, Humour, Literary fiction, Philosophical, Political, Postmodern Literature, Psychological, Satire, Science Fiction, Speculative Fiction, Surreal, UK authorTags: Booker Prize, Free Range Bookclub 2026
READ FOR BOOKERTHON Black Bag follows an unemployed actor who accepts a bizarre job participating in a psychology experiment where he spends a term attending university lectures zipped inside a large black leather bag. Inspired by a real experiment from 1967, this absurdist campus… Continue Reading “Black Bag – Luke Kennard”
Category: Absurdist, Art, Booker Prize, Contemporary fiction, Existentialist, Experimental fiction, Humour, Literary fiction, Philosophical, Political, Psychological, Satire, Surreal, UK authorTags: Booker Prize, Free Range Bookclub 2026
READ FOR BOOKCLUBChosen by Rachel Described as a radical fusion of feminist theory and experimental horror, Girls Against God is a stream of consciousness narrative on censorship, magic, gender, art and rebellion against power systems. I don’t know why I feel I have to… Continue Reading “Girls Against God – Jenny Hval”
Category: Art, Coming of Age, Experimental fiction, Faith & Religion, Feminism, Horror, Literary fiction, Metafiction, Queer, Surreal, TranslatedTags: Free Range Bookclub 2026
Posted on September 17, 2025
by thefreerangebookclub
1 Comment
READ FOR BOOKCLUBChosen by Rachel In a climate ravaged dystopian future where robots (Hums) take the every day jobs of humans and surveillance is at an all time high, a woman undergoes experiental facial surgery in order to pay her bills and treat her… Continue Reading “Hum – Helen Phillips”
Category: AI, Climate Fiction, Climate Fiction Prize, Contemporary fiction, Domestic Fiction, Dystopian, Environmental fiction, Family drama, Female Experience, Literary fiction, Political, Psychological, Realist, Science Fiction, Speculative Fiction, Surreal, Thriller, US fictionTags: Free Range Bookclub 2025
READ FOR BOOKCLUBChosen by Jodie Mieczysław, a student suffering from tuberculosis, arrives at the Wilhelm Opitz’s Guesthouse for Gentlemen but discovers there are many mysterious goings on, involving deaths, misogyny and the occult. Set in a Polish sanatorium in 1913, The Empusium blends horror,… Continue Reading “The Empusium – Olga Tokarczuk”
Category: Allegory, Experimental fiction, Female Experience, Feminism, Gothic, Historical Fiction, Horror, Humour, Literary fiction, Mthyical/folklore, Philosophical, Political, Psychological, Queer, Satire, Surreal, TranslatedTags: Free Range Bookclub 2025
READ FOR BOOKCLUBChosen by Rachel A 45 year old artist plans a roadie from LA to New York. Twenty minutes into the drive, she exits the freeway, rents a motel room, and undertakes a transformation of the room and herself, leading her on a… Continue Reading “All Fours – Miranda July”
Category: Art, Contemporary fiction, Domestic Fiction, Environmental fiction, Family drama, Female Experience, Feminism, Humour, National Book Awards, Philosophical, Psychological, Queer, Surreal, US fiction, Women's PrizeTags: Booker Prize, Free Range Bookclub 2024, Women's Prize
READ FOR NZ BOOK AWARDS Oversized people crammed in a space ship hurtle through space. Experimental fiction about New Zealand’s unjust justice system, the state of our prisons and how to be a good coloniser. It was one of the worst places Alba had… Continue Reading “Audition – Pip Adam”
Category: Absurdist, Allegory, Dystopian, Environmental fiction, Kiwi lit, Literary fiction, Metafiction, NZ Book Awards, Political, Psychological, Science Fiction, Speculative Fiction, Surreal, Unreliable NarratorTags: Free Range Bookclub 2024, Kiwi Fiction, Ockham NZ Book Awards
READ FOR BOOKCLUB Chosen by Rachel Gregor Samsa awakens one morning to discover he has turned into a giant insect, in this 1915 novella. An establishing story in the existentialism genre. ⚈ “Gregor Samsa one day wakes to find he has turned into a dung… Continue Reading “The Metamorphosis & Other Stories – Franz Kafka”
READ FOR BOOKCLUB Chosen by Rachel Ryder, a famous pianist, arrives in a European city to perform a concert. However, he appears to have lost most of his memory and finds his new environment surreal and dreamlike. As both hero and anti-hero, he wades… Continue Reading “The Unconsoled – Kazuo Ishiguro”
READ FOR BOOKERTHON A jester haunts this book, possessing the characters at inconvenient moments. They are a collection of interesting folk living in Ashby, England. An erratic, embitted old man; a drug dealer; a chiropodist with mysterious bruises; a man with schizophrenia; a boy building… Continue Reading “Darkmans – Nicola Barker”
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