thank you netgalley for the ARC.

the foreword did preempt me that the author’s main inspirations were camus and his observations of the political environment (totalitarian) back in his home country, Iran. i can’t say i’m a camus fan, so if i did not know this beforehand i don’t think i would have understood or enjoyed the writing/ story, so for a general reader like me it was necessary to have prior knowledge of the context.

South is about a journalist and aspiring writer, b, who takes up an assignment by a mysterious editor to go south and investigate the working conditions on an oil rig. we learn that his previously flailing career led him becoming an alcoholic bum, which put a strain on his marriage. this is all possibly because of childhood trauma from when his father became a political fugitive and left when he was just a child, and his life on the oil rig becomes one long nightmare as his days blend into one and he feels surveilled and censored. as a protagonist he is quite impotent, and when facing up to a menacing, omniscient, and malevolent government entity, he folds like a sock puppet. his already-weakened mind fragments even more and it is a sheer miracle he manages to make it out alive with all his limbs (and his desire to write) intact. throughout all that—through the beatings, torture, imprisonment, drugging, and interrogations—he still manages to think with his dick and get horny for any woman that crosses his path. defo not a hero in the conventional sense.

what this book does a good job of is conveying a climate of fear and secrecy. not a single person around b could be trusted and his spiral into isolation and lunacy was quite compelling. overall, once you get past the first part it is a reasonable engaging read best read in one sitting.

One of the writer's strengths is the creation of oppressive atmospheres where you feel the anguish of the character as your own.
Following B. on this journey through a world that we don't fully know is why this reading becomes so immersive.

South is an unflinchingly weird story, a mesmerizing trip through time and space and the bizarre, set (mostly) in the southern part of an unnamed country, first on an oil rig then on a large ship. The main character is there as a journalist, to do some investigating into the practices of the oil company, a job which he does terribly and incuriously. He’s stricken, I suppose, with both guilt (he has cheated on his wife with someone who turns out to be hired for the purposes of blackmail) and a lack of direction, probably because the country where he lives is presented as a post-apoc wasteland where climate change (probably?) has wreaked havoc on animal, environmental, and human life.

Again, it’s entirely strange, written in a spare tone that sometimes comes across as a bit frustrating for how little it describes the environment as well as the interior life of the narrator. The upside, though, is that the story moves quickly, with menace, and the tone matches the bleakness of the rest of the world we’re inhabiting. We’re never sure exactly what to believe, and the novel flinches from easy allegory. A strong sense of place is woven through the strongest passages, those which give a glimpse into the mysteries of life in the South, a region with customs and beliefs that seem to inhabit the land as well as its denizens.

Easy comparisons here are Kafka, Coetzee, Camus. Apologies for quickly-written feedback; I look forward to further reflection and I hope to interview the author himself before publication.

South is about an unnamed narrator, B, who is a writer. He travels South in a similarly unnamed desert country to write a report about strikes on an oil rig. He is faced with manipulations and enemies along the way. All the while trying to remember his and his father's past. There's some really interesting attention to details throughout. The constant editing by our unnamed narrator, B, to his own letters, the editing of the events on the rig (were he is sent in the South), by others, the events of his father's life by the government, and by B's publishers about his stories and writing. I also loved the supernatural elements. It makes the totalitarianism government and the power they hold over everyone even scarier. Information is slowly leaked out to the reader and it's a slow drip that makes you want more. A haunting, dreamlike story of what unchecked power can do told through the eyes and experiences of one man. The cover is also amazing. I love how the letters slowly morph together into something unknown.

Thank you to Netgalley and Dundurn Press for providing me with a copy of this e-book in exchange for an honest review. #SouthANovel #NetGalley

A dystopian novel following a journalist named 'B' and his experiences while living under a totalitarian regime. I really tried my best to enjoy this book, but I unfortunately did not like it. The storyline itself was not terrible, but I think there was much more potential. The writing was also not impressive in my opinion, and quite confusing to me at times. Although, I did like that we are switching back and forth between dreams, hallucinations, flashbacks, and real-time occurrences.

An unsettling read as journalist ‘B’ travels to an oil rig in an unnamed Middle Eastern country to write an investigative article. His father, a union activist, disappeared under sinister circumstances when he was a child. ‘B’ has written his father’s memoir, but his publisher has insisted on making significant changes. He is treated with suspicious on the rig, and the only person who was willing to talk to ‘B’ vanishes. The story is narrated like a journal as we learn about the strained relationship with his wife, strikes with backlash from the government., and environmental collapse. A mix of fantasy based on his own fathers writing, dreams, hallucinations and local superstitions create a claustrophobic atmosphere which accelerates when ‘B’ is forcibly removed from the rig and detained on a prison ship. A haunting tale of an obsessive regime told through the traumatic experiences of one man.

I LOVED this book, it really freaked me out! Set in a totalitarian society in the south of an unnamed desert country, a journalist travels to investigate recent strikes by oil rig workers. As he attempts to find out more information he realises that his mission is not as safe and easy as he thought, and whilst dealing with his own personal issues he must battle to keep his sanity. Lots of the story takes place on an oil rig, and the scene setting is so good, claustrophobic and unsettling. The story is so gripping and haunting and I know I will think about it a lot. I’ve never read a book quite like it, and feel like it’s going to be hard for me to recommend this well without telling you too much!

Accessibility:
It’s written in the first person past tense, and I found the language really easy to read and follow. It’s a relatively short book (under 200 pages), and I really liked the way barely any of the characters had names, they are just described by their job roles.

Really really recommend getting this when it comes out, the release date is September 12th 2023 :)

This book was really cleverly written with surprising and nail-biting twists and turns. It builds a really great image in your mind of the world the protagonist is inhabiting and is both harrowing and very hard to put down. It kept me riveted until the end, and i only wanted the story to continue. A frightening world of control, this was a great addition to the dystopian field of literature.

This short, compelling novel sucks you in from the very beginning. Lakghomi gives you just enough information, stringing the reader along through increasingly strange and disturbing events. The prose is calculated, but not cold. The narrator, B, never seems to quite know where things are going to end up, and as a reader I felt the same way. The slow realization that perhaps things aren't quite as they seem is done so well. Even as the narrator becomes (perhaps?) unreliable, Lakghomi skillfully keeps the story moving in a way that makes you want to trust the story and find out more.
The premise is rather straightforward: B sets out on a trip south to investigate worker strikes on offshore oil rigs. He leaves behind his wife, but he's not terribly reluctant to do so, given that their marriage is not in the place he wants it to be. And he leaves behind his unfinished book about his father. Readers are given crumbs about each of these remnants of B's life interspersed with the present-day narrative, and again, Lakghomi's confident storytelling and no-nonsense style suits the narrative structure very well. And then the story transforms into a paranoid, hallucinatory, and captivating mystery, and I like it even more. Would love to read more from this author!

In <b><i>South</i></b>, we follow B, a freelance writer/journalist who is writing a story about an oil rig. He travels through a desert, a dry land with outliers managing through the heat and dry air that is slowly draining them of life. Lakghomi doesn't say much about the world but shows his readers the bleakness of this time with B's interaction with the family he stays with as he drives to the rig. Amidst all this, it seems like their culture is still embedded in the whims of night, not that B would know or would report.

The plot isn't much a plot but B's experiences in this rig - his view of this place starts with his bunk mate and slowly spores from there. The rig is claustrophobic, and without a direct way to communicate with the outside world, the walls of the rooms seem closer and the smell, stronger. While reporting this report, he is also going through a private meltdown involving his marriage, the book he wrote trying to find his father and his insecurities flaring up as a writer.

In this short book, there is a lot going on and also its an immersive experience. We see the world and experience this world through B and his breathlessness becomes ours. I am, however, feeling a little shorted due to length of this novel.

<i>Thank you to Netgalley and Dundurn Press for providing me with a free copy of this e-book in exchange for an honest review.</i>

South was billed on Netgalley as "a haunting reimagination of a world under a totalitarian regime". It is possible that is exactly what it was. However, even after reading it, I couldn't tell you.
The perspective is that is a unreliable narrator starting a journey south to an oil rig to do a story. That is the most direct event in the book. Besides that, the book could have taken place in any country in a place where secrecy is paramount and the narrator is unlike and unlikable (which he was). We only find out the name of one character (narrators wife Tara). The narrator is known only as "B" and everyone else is referred to by their job (The Editor, The Publisher, etc).
Honestly, I felt no connection to any of these people. Three author ALMOST got a connection to form about 2/3 of the way through the book when the author started to show some agency (for selfish reasons, but still) but this was quickly quashed. There was no real reflection on the world as a whole, honestly, no way to tell if most of the book wasn't hallucinations of someone in an institution who occasionally had flashes of reality... in fact, that would have made more sense in some ways after the first third of the book.
I wouldn't recommend this book myself, but wouldn't dissuade anyone from reading it. I feel like the style is certainly unique and would have appeal to those who like to read experimental fiction.

Thank you to Netgalley and the publisher for the opportunity to read an advance copy of this book. #SouthANovel #NetGalley

A really haunting novel by Iranian born Babak Lakghomi.

Set in a modern totalitarian, and perhaps middle eastern, setting never named (the author is from Iran and lives in Canada), South is a rich, surreal dystopian novel. Told in first person, we follow journalist spinning down a path of no return, a heart of darkness told along desert roads, on seedy oil rigs, and interrogation rooms. Dreams and memory encroach on the protagonist, pushing him father and further away from his mission and deeper into mystery, and a kind of surreal landscape.

Hallucinatory, poetic, sparsely written and well edited for a crisp, fast read, this short novel really is worth your time. I felt compelled to keep reading, and surprised at almost every turn. The relationships and conversations all rang true, it really felt like I was with the protagonist through his odyssey.

The fear and dread of living in a world absent of accountability for it's rulers is what truely made me fearful. When you live in a world with fragile rules, where people frequently dissapear, the sense of losing control and not know what was going to happen next was truly stressful - life is cheap when big money and power is involved, and the protagonist's investigation lead him down a dark and foggy path. Evil winds are always blowing. Nothing is excatly as it seems.

In the end, what impressed me most about this novel was the control of prose, and narrative that Babak Lakghomi is able to craft. The world building and cold reality in which our protagonist lives is perhaps influenced by the author's own experience and travels, and its a fascinating world. The main character, never fully named, is called B by his family and friends - Babak certainly was playing with his own persona in this story, but I do not know to what level of reality or effect.

I really enjoyed this book. Yes it was stressful. It was sad. But most of all it was true.

A good quote from the text to sum up the novel:
What is considered innocent today may not be so tomorrow.

Thanks to Netgalley and the author for the ARC for an honest review. POSTED ON GOODREADS.

The comparisons to 1984 and The Stranger are right on the money. What starts rather cold and somewhat detached quickly devolves into a dystopian fever dream that you can't put down.

This book is a compelling story of a man trapped in an authoritarian system. The writing conveys the sense of foreboding and lack of control that B has in his fate. Kept turning the pages to find out what would happen to him. Definitely would recommend.

Born in Tehran in Iran but now living in Canada, Babak Lakghomi's writing seems to reflect personal experience that struggles to grasp the disparity of living under a repressive regime with the idea of a writer's ideal of personal freedom of expression. South, the author's second short novel, tried to put those ideas across in a more abstract fashion, establishing a mood that explores deeper, human concerns on a more universal level.

The narrator of South, B, is a freelance journalist, planning to write an article about life on an oil rig in the South of an unnamed country. His intentions for choosing to write about this subject aren't entirely clear, especially as there are more immediate concerns and problems in the world. A drought, brought about by a climate crisis seems to have had a major impact on the country, particularly in the South. Arriving at a fishing village before being transported to the rig, strange rites take place that ominously foreshadow what lies ahead for B. on the rig.

More than just a journalistic assignment, B.'s intentions seem to be as much about finding a place to pull himself together and deal with issues that clearly preoccupy him. He has an alcohol problem, but doesn't seem to be able to cope the enforced isolation on the oil rig, cut off for security reasons from the world outside, with no access to a phone or laptop. He is having relationship problems with his wife Tara and disagreements with his Publisher over a book he is writing about his father, a prominent union man who disappeared when he was young child. The relationship with his father in particular seems to be the source of some of his longstanding problems ("Maybe if I'd had him around, things would've been different"), but they also appear to be making his life with the authorities difficult now as well.

In terms of plot, there isn't much more to go on here in South, at least in terms of background detail. The situation in the outside world is left vague, the true nature of narrator's personal problems and subsequent troubles he encounters as he tries to write a report about life on the rig are not covered in any detail. What you have are a number of fragmentary episodes that seem to feed his unease mixed with guilt. This nonetheless does succeed in generating a mood that is certainly Kafkaesque in tone, the problems as much a symptom of the main character's dysfunction, troubles and confusion as it is with the authoritarian nature of the world around him - although there is evidently a sense that one feeds into the other.

It's not difficult to detect a political undercurrent in the growing suspicion that B., as a journalist with a trade unionist father who 'disappeared', may have been manoeuvred into a disappearance himself, left on a rig, cut off from contact with the rest of the world. He fears that his report notebook and activities onboard are all being monitored and that he is even being blackmailed. Or is it all just paranoia exacerbated by taking sleeping pills? Either way, it's having a serious impact on his mental and physical health.

South manages then to be political and personal but at the same time abstract and universal, relating to the individual in conflict with the system without even intending to set out on that path, finding himself caught up in the paranoid nightmare of an authoritarian regime. It also reflects to some extent the nature of being a writer and an observer with a need to record and report lived experiences and the experience of being human. There is a sense of powerlessness about B., caught up in his own personal concerns while others are out fighting for freedom, yet he still manages to become an enemy of the state, the writer always a danger to authority, capable of putting unapproved ideas in people's heads. If anything is achieved against the totalitarian state, the outcome, for B., for the people of the South, is at best temporary, an accommodation, but essentially unresolved.

It's clear from reading some other reviews of this book that many people love it, not even in spite of but because of its ambiguity. It didn't work for me because I hate not fully understanding what is going on and the feeling of never really getting answers. I also didn't "get" any of the commentaries this was trying to provide which is a total me problem and likely not the fault of the book (especially since other reviewers DID seem to "get" it). So...if you're okay with not always knowing what's happening and you want an interesting book....check this one out. If, however, that is not your thing...maybe steer clear this time.

<b><i>**Thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for providing a free e-ARC in exchange for an honest review**</i></b>

<i>South</i> hooked me from the first pages and didn’t let me go until the end. The publisher describes the story and writing as <i>hallucinatory</i> and it was indeed the case. The novel reads like a fever dream, reality melting with memories, images, and dreams in a paranoid swirl until the narrator (and the reader) can’t tell what is true anymore. Sold as a commentary on totalitarianism and the surveillance state, the novel lives up to its promise, all the way until the open ending that leaves you guessing whether our narrator will “win” against the state. The secondary theme around the duty of artists, writers, and creators was an interesting one too: how much does your art matter to you? How far are you willing to go to keep creating, even if it means you’ll get in trouble for it?
The writing itself is dry and to the point, while still delivering the right amount of imagery and worldbuilding, the stuffy, paranoid atmosphere of the oil rig, the scorched deserts of the South, the small, gray life the narrator returns to.
Though I don’t think this book is for everybody, it’s a great novel for fans of Kafka and Orwell, for readers who enjoy political dystopias, reflections on the current political and environmental climate, and the role of artists against dictatorships.

*I received an ARC via Netgalley in exchange for an honest review. Thanks for the free book.*

I had high hopes for "South" given the blurb / Netgalley description, but the fragmentary and enigmatic way the narrative progresses made it very hard for me to follow. I was invested in the story and ended up being disappointed. Apparently it's a dystopia set in America, there's totalitarianism and surveillance and fighting. Our protagonist is an unreliable narrator and journalist who is send to an oil platform to write about it but is more and more caught up in his own family history (that I never fully grasped!) and 'the system' using him in a very 1984 way. Honestly, I still don't understand parts of it and while the vibe was kinda cool, this is just another dystopia with an unlikeable, unhinged protagonist who thinks too much with his penis. I found him very unlikeable, felt sorry for his wife and I'm glad she got out. World building wise everything is left in the dark and while uncertainty and not really knowing is typical, it was too nebulous for me here. 3 stars

I know a lot of people won't agree but this book reminded me of Kafka. All those twists and turns but all leading back to the same point. It never seemed to matter where the writer, B, went, he always ended up hiding or being held by someone. It's never clear who he is afraid of or what the authorities believe him guilty of. He appears to have written a subversive novel about his disappeared father but it isn't even clear what the novel consisted of or whether his father was kidnapped or if he simply left.

This novel is quite convoluted but, strangely, you never get that feeling while you're reading. It's oddly compelling and I could barely put it down but I've still no idea quite why.

As always, I’ll start by thanking the mothership, NetGalley, for sending this ebook to be in advance.

South follows the story of B, a writer who has been given an assignment on an offshore rig somewhere down south and the strange things that he experiences and notices.

I enjoyed the writing style of this novel immensely, parts of this book were very engaging and enjoyable. For me, the story fell a bit short and I felt unsatisfied with the ending. I was very curious with his surroundings and state towards the end, and felt it ended without giving many clear answers.