AustLit

'We Are Speaking in Code explores difference and deviance in the everyday through the lenses of mental illness, queerness and migrant identity. Weaving personal anecdotes with reflections on trauma, psychology and contemporary relationships this collection of essays catalogues, reconsiders and unravels ideas of belonging, identity and the way we operate in the world.

Opening with a visit ‘home’ to Moscow where she speaks an alphabet-soup Russian, Vavilova tries to connect with her mother and grandmother. The titular essay starts one of the central conversations of the book; what does it mean to be a migrant whose identity is impossible in the land of their forebears and highly complicated in their home. Vavilova also tackles the millennial preoccupations of finding meaningful paid work, navigating dating in the tech age and the perils of building a living as an artist.

'Bridging social, emotional and geographic distances, Vavilova’s essays look for ways to live on the edges, with grace, humour and lucid rage.'

Source: Publisher's blurb.

'Grub brings its focus to those things we don’t see, to the people on the edges of society who might be a little “grubby”. Its setting is Sydney’s inner west, in a not-too-distant future, where the looming concerns of today (like climate change and capitalism) have come to pass, and subsistence is commonplace. They range from light-hearted, such as ‘Grub’, where an obsession to cleanliness is taken to extremes, to much darker. In ‘Carpark’, a young queer boy is beaten up, watched by a couple from the safety of their apartment, and ‘Whipped Cream’ is a Handmaid’s Tale-type dystopia, with references to breeding and silver vans. Peopled with odd individuals, Grub examines our humanity (and sometimes, lack of) in extreme circumstances.'

Source: Publisher's blurb.