The Alchemy of Paradise

In The Alchemy of Paradise, a curator-narrator confronts grief, loss, and mortality by arranging the fragments of her life—objects, memories, impressions—into a fragile order.

Set in unnamed England, with Venice shimmering at its core, the book follows her attempt to preserve what might otherwise vanish, shaping a collection that makes survival possible. When order fails to yield meaning, she turns to the alchemical, where matter shifts into metaphor and loss becomes transformation.

A novel of ideas told through poetic essays and reflections, The Alchemy of Paradise explores the tension between collecting and transmuting, order and disorder. In the spirit of Walter Benjamin’s collections, and in dialogue with writers like W.G. Sebald, Patti Smith, and Leanne Shapton, it meditates on how art and curation allow us to chart a personal map through the shared but solitary territory of grief. Refusing collapse into despair, the book offers curation itself as a restless, ongoing practice of survival and renewal.

Susannah M. Smith is the author of The Fairy Tale Museum (Invisible Publishing) and How the Blessed Live (Coach House Books). Her short fiction, poetry, and visual art have appeared in various publications. She lives in Vancouver.

Praise for The Fairy Tale Museum:

“The Fairy Tale Museum has more in common with installation art than with any traditional literary genres… [this book is] an exercise in encouraging creativity.”—Rain Taxi

“The Fairy Tale Museum is a beautifully written book of short prose invites the reader to relax and explore the curated ‘collections’ of pieces. It is a book you can, like a museum, come back to again and again and discover something new each time.”—Prairie Fire Review of Books

“I am easily enchanted by fiction that plays with form and subverts traditional storytelling. That’s why I loved The Fairy Tale Museum… Susannah M. Smith’s writing is poetic and hypnotic and this book was a lovely ode to imagination.”—Augur

“A dream within a dream within a book. A wonderland-like journey through magic and imagination. I’m running out of ways to describe this book, in part because it defies description. If you like dark fairy tales, you’ll probably like this.”—McNally Robinson Staff Pick

“In The Fairy Tale Museum, Susannah M. Smith has crafted a world as seemingly scenic and romantic as a snow globe—except this world can break, it can draw blood, and it can transform. This is a beautiful book, its beauty only deepened by its bite.”—Derek McCormack

“In Susannah M. Smith’s fantastical, moody folkloric menagerie, you can wander slowly and savour, or leap randomly between surprising exhibits. Part Brothers Grimm and part Doktor Bey, part novel and part poem, The Fairy Tale Museum is a moving, exquisite sensory experience. This is an exciting book.”—Stuart Ross