A review by warloujoyce
The Language of Knives by Haralambi Markov

4.0

The purification bath makes it easy to pull him up and slide him onto the table, where the budding dawn seeping from the skylight above illuminates his transmogrification, his ascent. His skin has taken a rich pomegranate hue.

Summary: It’s about a daughter being taught by her parent to make a cake out of her favourite parent’s corpse as an offering to the gods for admission to an afterlife.

Warning: This is not for the gore-averse and those sensitive to detailed descriptions of flesh, limbs, and blood.

In concept, it is gruesome, but in execution, it is beautiful and poetic. Written in the second person POV, the author paints a vivid picture of the ‘cake-making’ procedure, touching on the emotional aspect that lies behind the process, especially when both the daughter and parent are personally attached to the lifeless body on the table.

I really liked it. If short stories were written like this, then can I have more please?

Actual rating: 4.5 stars

You rest your fingers, throbbing with pain from your manipulations. You have completed the last of your husband’s tale. You have written in the language of meat and bones and satisfied the gods’ hunger. You hope they will nod with approval as their tongues roll around the cooked flesh and swallow your sentences and your tether to life.