Parasol Against the Axe

Narrator Dorje Swallow delightfully voices the city of Prague and the stories it contains in Oyeyemi’s (Peaces) perplexing latest. Hero Tojosoa takes a last-minute trip to Prague to attend her fair-weather friend Sofie’s bachelorette party. She carries a book titled Paradoxical Undressing with her, which changes its plot whenever she opens it. Meanwhile, Thea Gilmartin arrives in the city on business but decides to crash the party and confront Hero and Sofie about a past disagreement. She stumbles upon another copy of Paradoxical Undressing and also becomes baffled by its different versions. Swallow’s Australian-accented voice overflows with glee and mischief as Hero and Thea find themselves in one madcap situation after the next. His narration of the incomplete stories from Paradoxical Undressing is akin to the zaniness of Rocky and Bullwinkle’s “Fractured Fairy Tales” with its various accents and range.