by Isabel Waidner
Shortlisted for the Goldsmiths Prize and the Republic of Consciousness Prize
Praise for We are Made of Diamond Stuff
‘Daringly experimental, this is the cutting edge.’ – The Guardian
‘There is not a single ordinary sentence in Isabel Waidner’s We Are Made of Diamond Stuff. A novel that reads like an act of sabotage, of resistance, written as a song-scream against our nullifying need to belong. It is charged with undeniable life, like some explosive projectile aimed at all our insidious narratives (nationalism, exclusionary culture, corporatism, conservatism and so much more). You hope it goes off, that it blows open everything in its sights – just so that you may ride out on its wake. It leaves you laughing, breathless but also heartbroken and hopeful, like the spirited survivors in the book itself. Like lightning, this novel. It is a furious work, stuffed with necessary power, purpose and also affection. And to borrow one of its lines to re-articulate it – like the lypard, it navigates dimensions.’ – Guy Gunaratne, author of In Our Mad and Furious City