There are plenty of scenes that disturb and worry yet don’t seem to be shock tactics. Through the eyes of two narrators linked by a single act of violence, the reader is brought to confront shifting ideas of gender, class, and human agency and dignity. Why, when the centre of power, economics and trade shifts from developed countries is that vision seen to be dystopic? No, seriously. "The Girl in the Road is a brilliant novel, vivid, sparky, fearless, intense with a kind of savage joy. Trauma is handed down and it affects everyone for generations to come. They are trying to reach Addis Abba, Ethiopia, a metropolis swirling with radical politics and rich culture. Mariama is also heading to Addis Ababa but from Mauritiana, across the African continent, as a young child stowaway on a cargo truck. Constructed originally as a way to source solar and hydroelectric power, the Trail is a series of scale-like platforms tethered together and floating along the surface of the Arabian Sea, made out of a “conspiracy of ideal materials.” But somehow, it grew sentient, “like a great sea snake,” and “just wants to be left alone.” With a life of its own, “the Trail goes from shore to shore and more people come. I did not feel the narrative condoned it in any shape or form. The girl in the road wears a sari and haunts them all. there are two intertwining tales here: meena's, and mariama's, starting as a little girl escaping from slavery and traveling to ethopia by modern caravan. Never miss a post! I do not think the novel allows the reader “to confront shifting ideas of gender”: because they are not shown as shifting. She later is sexually abused by a much older woman when she is still a child. The Trail itself is an amazing feat of technology and wonder. What made The Girl in the Road feel amazing in the first place? The girl in the road is Meena. She’s running from a snake too, a sky-blue one. The unreliability of its narrators though, is what clinched it for me in the beginning. "The Girl in the Road is a brilliant novel, vivid, sparky, fearless, intense with a kind of savage joy. She is a nurturing caretaker who watches over all things with a keen eye. 4 : a duo of awesomely badass book nerds. But then she’s confronted with the fact that Mohini is human. Meanwhile, Mariama, a young girl in Africa, is forced to flee her home. She joins up with a caravan of misfits heading across the Sahara. Who is the young girl who Meena keeps seeing along the Trail at the “the epitome of madness”? Mariama, a girl from a different time, is on a quest of her own. Ultimately, one reader’s dystopia is another’s reality and Byrne acknowledges this. 2 : a publisher of speculative short fiction and nonfiction since 2014. “ The Girl in the Road is a brilliant novel, vivid, intense, and fearless with a kind of savage joy. Who killed them, why and can she still find the woman who did it? They are shown as something that has happened in the past, is happening now and will happen in the future. The source of and controller of all waters, she is the quintessential mother. We would rather hold ourselves up as progressive thinkers than face the transphobia and racism that has been passed down to us. In a world where global power has shifted east and revolution is brewing, two women embark on vastly different journeys—each harrowing and urgent and wholly unexpected. The Girl in the Road describes a future that is culturally lush and emotionally wrenching. I don’t think there is anything nuanced about the portrait of violence against women here. 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