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The Fifth Wound

By Aurora Mattia
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Book Hero Magic crafted this summary to help describe this book. While it's new and still learning, it may not be perfect - your feedback is welcome! Summary
The Fifth Wound is an intimate, baroque exploration of one woman's interdimensional quest for beauty and embodiment. The narrative weaves through kaleidoscopic scenes—from hospital corridors and brutal breakups to passionate romances—blurring fantasy and reality. The story unfolds on multiple planes: a love story of separation and reunion between Aurora and Ezekiel; encounters with transphobic violence; and ecstatic visionary experiences featuring time travel, medieval nuns, and t4t romance.
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Format: Paperback / softback
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Book Hero Magic created this recommendation. While it's new and still learning, it may not be perfect - your feedback is welcome! IS THIS YOUR NEXT READ?

This novel will resonate with readers interested in experimental narrative structures, themes of transformation and identity, and those drawn to lyrical, myth-inspired storytelling that challenges traditional boundaries.

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Book Hero Magic formatted this description to make it easier to read. While it's new and still learning, it may not be perfect - your feedback is welcome! Description

Named a must read book of 2023 by Nylon, BookRiot, Vulture, The Millions, and Ms. Magazine!

A baroque work of intimate myth exploring one woman's interdimensional search for beauty and embodiment, through kaleidoscopic renderings of hospital corridors, brutal breakups, and passionate romance.

The Fifth Wound is a phantasmagorical roman à clef about passion as a way of life. In one dimension, this is a love story - Aurora & Ezekiel - a separation and a reunion. In another, we witness a tale of multiple traumatic encounters with transphobic violence. And on yet another plane, a story of ecstatic visionary experience swirls, shatters, and sparkles. Featuring time travel, medieval nuns, knifings, and t4t romance, The Fifth Wound indulges the blur between fantasy and reality. Its winding sentences open like portals, inviting the reader into the intimacy of embodiment - both its pain and its pleasures.

Book Details

INFORMATION

ISBN: 9781643621487

Publisher: Nightboat Books

Format: Paperback / softback

Date Published: 20 April 2023

Country: United States

Imprint: Nightboat Books

Illustration: Illustrations

Audience: General / adult

DIMENSIONS

Width: 140.0mm

Height: 216.0mm

Weight: 250g

Pages: 288

Collections

Aurora Mattia Fiction General Fiction LGBTQ+ Literary Fiction

About the Author

Aurora is drawn to dim lights, velvet eyelashes, kaleidoscopes, semicolons, silk draping, cemeteries, and the blank page. She falls into mutual deep infatuation with relative speed because she dives straight to the heart of matters in intimate conversations. Her influences range from the Psalms to the psych ward. She loves Lucinda Williams, Li Bai, Townes van Zandt, the Tarot, Real Housewives of Salt Lake City, Woolf, Glissant and Bluebonnets. She thinks about Texas every day. She lives in Brooklyn.

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