Transactions

An electric collection of fiction from the Prime Minister’s Prize shortlisted author Transactions, the second work of prose fiction by Ali Alizadeh, presents a provocative and panoramic view of our contemporary world. Spanning themes such as immigration and globalisation, war and poverty, human trafficking and global warming, sexual abuse and exploitation, and love and survival, the book highlights the complexities and traumas of the modern world. Based on his extensive world travels and his experiences migrating from Iran to Australia as a teenager, Ali has created a manuscript of story cycles (connected stories and characters) that is both shocking and humorous, often at the same time. These are ‘global’ stories in their setting and their themes, featuring characters such as a spoiled Emirati rich girl, an Iranian asylum seeker in Amsterdam, a Liberian refugee seeking aid from a charity, a Ukrainian prostitute, a Danish sex trafficker and a Chinese gamer. These stories offer something exciting and new in contemporary fiction. Stylistically and thematically, Transactions is fresh and adventurous; the characters living on the edge of what is considered civilised society, often caught between East and West and in the web of global politics.