The Saint of Bright Doors

It had me from the opening paragraph, where the protagonist's mother drives a nail through his shadow and rips it from him. This tight wire balance of tone between the whimsical and the searingly traumatic continues throughout the book. It layers in themes of religion, colonialism, and genocide while somehow remaining witty and engrossing throughout.

The prose was lush, lyrical and evocative without ever swerving into being purple. The world was rich and fascinating, and I loved the allusions to real world situations and technologies while still maintaining a fantastical feel. The way it ended blew my mind. As an author myself, this was the kind of book that made me a little jealous of the skill and imagination on display.

My appreciation for this book snuck up on me. I thoroughly enjoyed the first third or so, in which we are introduced to Fetter–destined to assassinate his godlike father–and are introduced to the fascinating city in which the story is set. But I wasn’t as enthralled with what I took, at the time, for a bit of a meandering middle section. However, the utterly creative and mind-twisting final fifth of the book won me back over.

With time, I’ve come to appreciate the subtle thematic and character work in those middle chapters. Of all the books on this list, this… show more.

Chandrasekera first came onto my radar when I read a brilliant short story of his in 2021.

When I learned he had a novel coming out this year, I immediately preordered despite vague doubts about his ability to extend his meta, liminal brand of short fiction into novel form. Well, I’m pleased (and annoyed and envious) to admit I was wrong.

In The Saint of Bright Doors, a boy named Fetter is raised by his mother to one day kill his father, who is a saint not in the figurative sense of the word but in the has-godly-powers sense… show more.

It isn’t often that a book makes me actually exclaim aloud while I’m reading it. The turns of plot and turns of phrase in this novel are awe-inspiring.

It’s a fantasy novel set in a place that is just as weird and unhinged as the actual countries, cities, and belief systems that human beings have created. This is one of those books that makes me want to level up as a writer – and I can’t even be jealous about it, because I’m just so happy it exists in the world.