Trafik

From the singularly inventive mind of Rikki Ducornet, Trafik is a buoyant voyage through outer space and inner longing, transposing human experiences of passion, loss, and identity into a post-Earth universe. Quiver, a mostly-human astronaut, takes refuge from the monotony of harvesting minerals on remote asteroids by running through a virtual reality called the Lights, chasing visions of an elusive red-haired beauty. Her high-strung robot partner, Mic, pilots their Wobble and entertains himself by surfing the records of the obliterated planet Earth stored on his Swift Wheel for Al Pacino trivia, recipes for reconstituted sushi, and high fashion trends. But when an accident destroys their cargo, Quiver and Mic go rogue, setting off on a madcap journey through outer space toward an idyllic destination: the planet Trafik.

About the Author :
Rikki Ducornet is a transdisciplinary artist. Her work is animated by an interest in nature, Eros, tyranny and the transcendent capacities of the creative imagination. She is a poet, fiction writer, essayist, and artist, and her fiction has been translated into fifteen languages. Her art has been exhibited internationally, most recently with Amnesty International's traveling exhibit I Welcome, focused on the refugee crisis. She has received numerous fellowships and awards including an Arts and Letters Award from the American Academy of Arts and Letters, the Bard College Arts and Letters Award, the Prix Guerlain, a Critics' Choice Award, and the Lannan Literary Award for Fiction. Her novel The Jade Cabinet was a finalist for the National Book Critics Circle Award.

Review :
Praise for Trafik “What makes a human? Where does consciousness reside? It could all become very serious, if Ducornet weren’t so skilled in absurdity.” —Arianna Rebolini, Buzzfeed “Essential Ducornet, obscure and extravagant. . . . Ducornet delivers a fascinating addition to her incredible practice. A Jupiter fuse against the void.” —Joseph Houlihan, Chicago Review of Books “A longtime master of the extraordinary sentence, Ducornet has outdone herself here, blending SF’s penchant for invented jargon with her own queer linguistic egalitarianism. . . . in a primordial soup of possibility." —Kirkus, starred review “Ducornet dazzles with this whirlwind jaunt through a far-future universe, told in jargon-studded prose that turns gonzo science into gleeful lyricism. . . . Ducornet remains a fantastic stylist.” —Publishers Weekly “Thoroughly delightful, poignant, funny, and sweet, like if Italo Calvino wrote The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy in a series of pointed vignettes, it’s the perfect amount of quarantine-relatable loneliness and existential spiraling, combined with escapism and optimism.” —Rachel S., Harvard Bookstore for Buzzfeed “At once funny and absurd, Trafik peers at our own time through the lens of the future to reveal what we should regret losing and what would be better gone.” —Brian Evenson