1000 Tiny Birds

Olivie Blake - Alone With You In The Ether (2022)

Sometimes, you see a book in a shop and, just, know. The cover, the title, the blurb. Alone With You In The Ether very much hit that spot for me. It is a book that is in some way about almost all of the things that I like in a book - a complicated relationship, an attempt to understand how we come to know one another, refracted through some combination of maths and art. The two protagonists discover each other through a game of conversations, a slow unravelling of the interior to the exterior. I’ve not read any of Blake’s fantasy work; although I’m sure I would probably enjoy it, I would doubt I would enjoy it as much as I do this more grounded novel. It’s one for which I - for the first time - took the time to understand and care to use my Kindle’s highlighting feature, such that I could go back to the bits that I would otherwise photograph in physical copies (eschewing the idea of marking them with pencil - an affront and a defacement). I’m glad I did, flicking back through them now. Time is a hexagon and the bees mean something. The fact that that sentence can be about love - yes, please.