Apsara Engine, by Bishakh Som
Som's beautiful collection of stories will keep readers on their toes as she unflinchingly challenges cultural and gender norms and opens up new worlds and possibilities, inviting us to expand the limits of imagination. Throughout, Som's interest in interrogating spatiality is evident not simply in the text but in the way she presents her work, employing traditional comic-book techniques then switching it up to emphasize larger-than-life moments. Mixing the fantastic with the more banal parts of everyday life, Som reminds us that even within what we consider normative there is always space for much deeper, richer possibilities--sometimes it's only a matter of creating that space ourselves.