Enigmatic. Haunting. Confusing. Menacing. Slippery. Ruminative. Magnetic. Just a few words to describe this slim novel put out by the wonderful Dorothy Publishing. A down-on-her-luck investigator is hired to find a missing wife. The woman seems to have run off with a lover and disappeared into a peripheral region known as the Taiga. It's an area that’s almost subliminal (feral, disconnected, remote, dangerous; almost a separate language). Although reluctant to take on the case, seeing a kind of futility in it immediately, the investigator sets off on a hunt that explores the nature of love and language and desire. A philosophical inquiry charading as an investigation. A bread crumb trail of language turns into an indefinite journey for our main character.

As the investigator and her hired translator get closer to their prey, meaning and sanity begin to fray. Noise is added to the signal as language passes from language to language, speech to writing, notes to report... A surreal menace tightens masterfully and mysteriously as the story unfolds.

“In fairy tales, the wolf is always ferocious. Astute and agile, the wolf always figures out how to get its way. … The Wolf, in other words, always wins.”

Eventually, language is impotent. It cannot penetrate place/nature in this tale (neither literally nor figuratively).
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The final chapter (XXIII) is simply a musical playlist, which, thankfully, someone has already gone to the trouble of compiling for us on Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/playlist?
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BITS OF LANGUAGE STILL LEFT ROOTED IN CORPOREALITY
stylohyoid | digastric | sternocleidomastoid
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Asymptote Journal Interview with Garza (Oct. 2020)