Things That Are

Reviews / Votes

This book is a thing of wonder. Amy Leach has found delight in the details of the world, and taken exuberant pleasure in putting that delight into the most unexpected words. Each paragraph carries phrases to underline and read aloud; each page offers another way of seeing the world anew. A sheer delight -- Jon McGregor Like a descendant of Lewis Carroll and Emily Dickinson, Amy Leach brings new meaning to the world without us, and within. A reader entering this book to learn more about the universe will exit knowing much more about her own self. At once large and intimate, [Things That Are] introduces one of the most exciting and original writers in America -- Yiyun Li, author of Gold Boy, Emerald Girl and The Vagrants Things That Are is a joy. Every sentence is a surprise, bursting open like little pop-rocks -- Brian Eno The 26 pieces here are short, pithy, and packed with information delivered in poetic but precise language. It is rich fare. Don't read too much in one sitting. These are the gold flakes you scatter on the rice dish of your everyday reading -- Julian Gough * * Guardian * * No amount of viewings of Planet Earth will prepare you for Leach's vision or her style, her tumultuous, incantatory rejoicing in the astonishing multiplicity of the Earth... Buy this book for everyone you know -- Olivia Laing * * Observer * * It's impossible not to be charmed by the way she finds the magical in the prosaic - but never loses sight of the science * * Metro * * Leach teases the written word like an elastic band, stretching time and belief and meaning... it's impossible to feel indifferent to her hymn-like prose that is reminiscent of a young Jeanette Winterson... you can't help but feel you've plunged down the rabbit hole with her in this unique book * * Stylist * * This slim book from the American essayist Amy Leach is a rarity * * Financial Times * * Leach's prose tumbles and cascades, sweeping the reader along * * We Love This Book * * Of all the wondrous things that are catalogued in this brave little book, the most wondrously fresh and novel may be the uncanny Ms. Leach's own gamin-sly, rhythm-rhymey voice, and oh that flint-flighty, rapt-capacious mind of hers. Besides which, no one conjures a presenter present tense than she. Sheer scrambling delight -- Lawrence Weschler, author of Mr Wilson's Cabinet of Wonder The living world has a new and sprightly champion. Leach is ecstatic in her knowledgeable, resplendent, and exhilarating contemplations of everything from subatomic particles to dust, Spinoza, donkeys, and caterpillars * * Booklist * * Lyrical and strange, this engaging book is filled with short tales whose most perfect sentences stay with you, especially in your dreams * * Huffington Post * * Award-winning US writer Leach aims to rekindle our communion with the world in this bijou of a debut... her voice and vision are utterly enchanting -- Caroline Sanderson * * Non-Fiction Book of the Month, The Bookseller * * Infernally addictive -- David Abram * * author of Becoming Animal * * I know of no other writer on earth-or in the sky-like Amy Leach. One of the pleasures of Things That Are is the surprise of finding, among the mouldywarps and whimwhams and leguminous exoplanets of our galaxy, truths about ourselves-unearthed and unaired -- Eula Biss * * author of Notes from No Man's Land * * Things That Are possesses the whimsical wordplay and wonder of a Victorian fairytale... sparkling. Every sentence is as pure and fanciful as frost patterns on a window pane... should be read aloud, tasted, and savored... Succumb to her world for a few hours and your heart will be the lighter for it * * Rumpus * * Stunning... fanciful and erudite... electrically poetic... startlingly original * * Minneapolis Star Tribune * *