AustLit

'The term “experimental fiction” can be used to cover a multitude of sins: an almost petulant obsession with abstraction and a disdainful disregard for the experience of the reader, among them. When it works, though, we have novels in the tradition of Kafka, Woolf and Foster Wallace. The very best experimental writers have an inspired and weird way of seeing the world that makes much realist fiction seem moribund. Elizabeth Tan’s debut novel-in-stories, Rubik, is in the latter category: it’s wonderful, brilliant and mind-bending, and a worthy heir to the experimental tradition. (Introduction)

'We’re sitting on high stools at Kelly’s kitchen bench. She’s got one leg tucked beneath her, yogi style, the other dangling far from the floor. She’s tiny. The kitchen is white and beautiful. There are toys tucked away in open shelves and in the background we listen to the rumblings of the washing machine. Kelly’s an old friend, but we haven’t seen each other for a while, in the way that sometimes happens when people have young children.' (Introduction)