Paperback, 113 pages
Published Jan. 20, 2019 by Dostoyevsky Wannabe.
We Are Made Of Diamond Stuff is an innovative and critically British novel, taking issue with the dream of national belonging. Set on the Isle of Wight, a small island off the south coast of England, it collides literary aesthetics with contemporary working class cultures and attitudes (B.S. Johnson and Reebok classics), works with themes of empire, embodiment and resistance, and interrogates autobiographical material including the queer migrant experience.
Equal parts Ballardian dreamscape and stream-of-consciousness commentary, Waldner's short novel is a sharp survey of queer working-class realities in a declining Britain. Concise and rich in references, they test and transcend the limits of conventional storytelling without ever losing touch with their proponents' perspective. Funny, sad and angry.
