The Night Alphabet by Joelle Taylor
In the distant future, a woman walks into a tattoo parlour to tell the tale of her interconnected tattoos in this mesmerising and blistering exploration of male violence and female solidarity
Every tattoo is a story. And when Jones walks into a tattoo parlour in 2233 to have her many tattoos connected by a thin line of ink and blood, she begins to tell them. That Joelle Taylor’s debut novel is exquisitely written is no surprise. Winner of the T.S Eliot Prize for Poetry and the Polari Prize, Taylor knows how to turn a phrase; it is a bonus, then, that with The Night Alphabet Taylor reveals herself to be an extraordinary storyteller, leading us through the series of vivid, interconnecting tales.
From a gang of vigilante sex workers patrolling a council estate and an unwitting eugenicist in a dystopian woman-factory, to the brave butches of the Maryville gay bar and the coal miner’s daughter descending into the dark, each story is a deeply human look at the way misogynist violence impacts women’s lives. And threading them all together is the teller, Jones, readying herself to share the next story with her two wary tattoo artists.
In this way, The Night Alphabet feels deeply connected to the way women used to tell stories, with words and woven images, before we were able to wrestle pens from the hands of men. For though this book is touched by violence, it is also defined by women’s responding joy, strength and liberation, and the unbroken lines of blood and experience that connect us all.