Permafrost is the evocative and enchanting short fiction debut by S.J. Norman, whose short stories are as dark as they are illuminating.
This brilliant collection of short fiction explores the shifting spaces of desire, loss, and longing. Inverting and queering the gothic and romantic traditions, each story represents a different take on the concept of a haunting or the haunted. Though it ranges across themes and locations – from small-town Australia to Hokkaido to rural England – Permafrost is united by the power of the narratorial voice, with its auto-fictional resonances, dark wit, and swagger.
Whether recounting the confusion of a child trying to decipher their father and stepmother’s new relationship, the surrealness of an after-hours tour of Auschwitz, or a journey to wintry Japan to reconnect with a former lover, Permafrost unsettles, transports, and impresses in equal measure.
Permafrost includes seven short stories, two of which were previously published by Kill Your Darlings and in the UTS Writer’s Anthology. The seven stories are published together here for the first time, forming a compelling collection. Norman is a writer, artist and curator who has worked across various artistic mediums including performance art, sculpture, video, and writing. Their skilful prose is crystal clear through the short story medium – Permafrost is bitingly sharp.
These stories explore Norman’s intersecting identities as Indigenous, queer, and gender non-conforming. They write about growing up with a new stepmother in Stepmother and navigating the difficulty that comes with that relationship for a young teenager. They reminisce on formative relationships in Permafrost and travel to Japan to meet a past lover. Norman paints vivid pictures of each setting – from cold, rural Japan to the mundanity of a hotel in Canberra.
The streets of wet and wintry London and Eastern Europe provide bleak backdrops, most notably in Unspeakable, where Norman retells their visit to Auschwitz. They join a tour guide on an after-hours tour of the death camp, in which they describe the heavy feelings it conjures, and the mechanical horrors and brutality of the site. Each story, like this one, takes a snippet in time, a past memory or a relationship with somebody, and weaves it into a haunting narrative. It sent a few shivers down my spine and left me awestruck at Norman’s ability to craft truly compelling short fiction.
Permafrost is a remarkable collection of short fiction from an impressive storyteller. I eagerly await whatever Norman creates next.
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