Book Club - Subculture Lit: Brother Brontë by Fernando A. Flores (Austin)
Subculture Lit is a book club with East Austin Writing Project. In January, we will be discussing the dystopian novel Brother Brönte by Fernando A. Flores at an in-person gathering in Austin, TX.
Full Description
Join Subculture Lit Book Club with East Austin Writing Project for a deep dive into Brother Brontë, a genre-bending work of speculative literary fiction that blends dystopian satire, borderlands surrealism, and metafictional adventure to stage a revolt against censorship, extraction, and authoritarian control.
Set in Three Rivers, Texas, in 2038, the novel follows two friends, punk rocker Neftalí and her former bandmate Proserpina, as they try to survive under Mayor Pablo Henry Crick’s draconian regime, where reading (and, in some accounts, art more broadly) is criminalized and enforced through “book shredders.” After a raid forces Neftalí to hide what remains of her library, she and Proserpina embark on a perilous journey toward the state-run Big Tex Fish Cannery, a toxic operation fueled by forced labor, in an attempt to deliver a hydraulics manual as a gift while protecting a prized novel by renegade author Jazzmin Monelle Rivas.
Flores builds the book as a chaotic, webbed triptych, expanding beyond street-level survival into visions, backstory, and nested narrative, while assembling a ragtag resistance that asks what it takes to keep art alive when the state is determined to destroy it.
Who this is for
Readers who love experimental fiction, dystopian satire, and politically charged surrealism
Writers and artists curious about censorship, form-breaking structure, and metafiction
Anyone in Austin, TX, looking for a thoughtful, community-centered Arts & Culture book discussion
About Subculture Lit & EAWP
Subculture Lit is a themed book club series from East Austin Writing Project, a literary arts community offering Poetry Club, Craft Intensives, Critique I & II, and more in Austin, TX. We focus on books that challenge form, elevate underrepresented voices, and support small press publishers, inviting conversation across genres and disciplines.
Please read Brother Brontë before the event and receive 15% off your book purchase at Alienated Majesty Books by mentioning our book club.
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Austin, Austin, TX, East Austin, Arts & Culture, Literary Arts, Book Club, Subculture, Experimental Fiction, Speculative Fiction, Dystopian, Satire, Censorship, Metafiction, Borderlands Literature