Smoothie

Tender, exuberant and deliciously dark, Claudine Toutoungi's debut collection evokes the surreal humor of Matthew Sweeney and the candor of Emily Berry, while remaining disarmingly fresh in its blend of desire and dislocation. Roaming from metropolis to sculpture park to remote coastal town, Smoothie charts the wayward wanderings of a compelling cast of misfits – hotel eavesdroppers, city interlopers, lone wolves, phantom bird-watchers, disaffected language robots and triumphant piano-swallowers – as they grapple with the urge to communicate whatever the cost.