The Insomnia Museum ★★★

Laurie Canciani, Head of Zeus, R265

At 17, Anna can’t remember ever being outside her father’s crammed flat. She can’t read and spends her time re-watching

The Wizard of Oz with

a plastic Jesus figurine. Her father, a drug addict and hoarder, leaves only to bring back more junk for them to tinker with for their Insomnia Museum. Then one day her father doesn’t wake up and Anna calls the only other person she knows, a good Samaritan she met through the closed door. Anna’s experience of the outside world is dreamlike and distorted, creating an almost untrustworthy narrative where the reader encounters dysfunctional characters in a violence-ridden council estate from a child-like perspective. It makes for a dizzying read.