A fever-dream fantasy about a nonexistent Mediterranean country; a good Brooklyn serial-killer neo-noir; and a spectral dub ambient record

Roundup 09/24/2023

Greetings from Read Max HQ, and welcome to our weekly roundup column, in which I pick out some worthwhile and often overlooked books, articles, movies, and music to recommend to paying subscribers. For this week’s round-up I’ve got:

• A literary fantasy about war and conspiracy in a nonexistent Mediterranean country;

• further work in the field of “fake Apple texts”/Dimension Apple;

• a creepy, well-observed Brooklyn neo-noir by the writer of Out of Sight; and

• an atmospheric ambient LP for nighttime fall listening.

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Now, the roundup. First, as always, a dispatch from the future: