No Man's Land Night

Annemarie Estor is known for the sensuousness and sensory intensity of her texts and her cross-genre poetics. Critics have described her poems as texts that ‘should be gobbled up and revelled in’. They say she writes ‘language from which there is no escape’, and uses ‘intoxicating metaphors, mesmerizing lyricism, and unique musicality’.

‘No Man’s Land Night’ is a narrative in poems, full of suspense, on the divided city Orb-e-Grout. Pili, the main character, crosses the border between Orb and Grout in the company of her teacher Valeria. Because of the divide between the two, crossing the border is considered a crime: Orb is a society in which technology and algorithms have taken over life, the surrounding slum called Grout contains that which is excluded. There, people live in primitive circumstances and poverty. Pili is described as someone feeling uncomfortable in Orb, but the plot really starts when Valeria tells Pili a shocking truth: she has a mother.

'No Man's Land Night' is not really a whodunnit, but the main character's quest for an answer to the question ‘Where do I come from?’ triggers an adventurous story full of surprises and inventive associations. Using a multi-faceted language and typography Annemarie Estor depicts and critiques a dystopian world that is magical and exotic, but at the same time terrifyingly recognizable.