“Revision”
by Daisy Hildyard
from the December 23, 2024 issue of The New Yorker

I am so intrigued to read Daisy Hildyard. Her debut, Hunters in the Snow, sounds so good and the cover features, naturally, Bruegel’s painting of the same name. And then she’s got two more recent books published by Fitzcarraldo Edition, Emergency and The Second Body. How come I haven’t read any of her books yet, despite wanting to? I’m sure we all have plenty of these authors, right? But this might help me get to her sooner than I would have otherwise.

Here is how “Revision” begins:

The awakening began for Gabriel in Oxford, in May, 2009. As final exams approached, everybody was talking about the girl who had walked up to the front desk of the social-sciences library and stabbed herself in the eyes with a pen. She survived, they said, but was permanently blind, and currently lying in the John Radcliffe infirmary, awaiting the arrival of her parents. There were rumors that students at Oriel College were being monitored through the bar codes on their library cards, but the story was spun in different ways. Some saw it as a dystopian conspiracy, with data being harvested for a eugenicist research project run by the head of the college. Others told it as a tale of the élite: the students who were found to be falling short would be quietly expelled so that the college could uphold its excellence in internal rankings.

Now that’s quite the start. Intrigued like me? I’d love to hear your thoughts!

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