In Susan Daitch's fourth, intricate novel, a series of archeological expeditions unfold through time, each one looking for the ruins of a fabled underground city-state that once flourished in a remote province near the border of present-day Iran, Pakistan, and Afghanistan. Sealed off for centuries by seismic activity, Suolucidir beckons with the promise of plunder and the glory of discovery, fantasies as varied as the imaginations of her aspiring modern-day conquerors.
As the tumult of the twentieth century's great wars, imperial land grabs and anti-colonial revolutions swirl across its barren, deserted landscape, the ancient city remains entombed below the surface of the earth. A succession of adventurers, speculators and unsavory characters arrive in search of their prize, be it archeological treasure, oil, or evidence of crimes and punishments. Intrigue, conspiracies, and counter-plots abound, and contemporary events interfere with each expedition, whether in the form of the Axis advance, British Petroleum, or the Revolutionary Guards. People disappear, relics are stolen, and the city closes in upon itself once more.
Susan Daitch is the author of the novels Paper Conspiracies (City Lights), L.C., and The Colorist, as well as the collection Storytown. Her work has appeared widely in BOMB, Guernica, McSweeney's, and elsewhere. She is based in Brooklyn and teaches at Hunter College.
New Yorkers! See Susan in July at Unabriged Bookstore, McNally Jackson, and Book Court. She'll also be at Wellfleet Library on August 1st, and later that month at Newtonville Books.
