Pomegranates

I believe I first read one of Priya Sharma’s stories in Ellen Datlow’s anthology of bird horror, Black Feathers. I was dazzled by her contribution, in no small part because of the sharpness and beauty of her prose. Her first collection, All the Fabulous Beasts, was a knockout assortment of stories loosely gathered around the theme of the title. It won the Shirley Jackson award for collection, and rightly so. Then came Ormeshadow, a novella which reminded me variously of D.H. Lawrence, John Fowles, and Lucius Shepard’s “Dragon Griaule” stories. To write a great story, while not an easy task, is something to which any writer might aspire. But to write great stories so consistently is something else altogether.

Priya Sharma’s new novella, Pomegranates, is another terrific story, one in which figures and situations from Greek mythology collide with a world whose apocalypse has come in the form of a new ice age. The narrative shuttles back and forth between the mythological and the near-future. In the process, Sharma updates the histories of several of the better-known Greek deities, reframing their stories in contemporary terms and settings. At the same time, her presentation of the icy apocalypse moves increasingly from day-after-tomorrow science fiction in the direction of mythic quest. These strands bleed into and blend with one another as Sharma steadily raises the stakes for her characters and the worlds they inhabit. The novella ends in a moment of eucatastrophe that is shocking and wonderful.

There are certain writers whose new work cannot come fast enough for me. Priya Sharma is one of those. If you’re looking for a place to start with her fiction, you might take a look at Pomegranates.