Eugen Bacon’s Book Notes music playlist for her novel Crimson in Quietus

In the Book Notes series, authors create and discuss a music playlist that relates in some way to their recently published book. Previous contributors include Jesmyn Ward, Lauren Groff, Bret Easton Ellis, Celeste Ng, T.C. Boyle, Dana Spiotta, Hanif Abdurraqib, Andrew Sean Greer, Roxane Gay, and many others. Eugen Bacon’s Crimson in Quietus is an impressive work of Afro-futurism, a novel both inventive and lyrical. Publishers Weekly wrote of the book: “Bacon sets this smart, metaphysical Afrofuturist saga in the multiauthor-created Sauútiverse, which imagines a binary star system supporting a federation of five planets where magic travels on sound waves. . . . Bacon’s prose is as rich as the world-building, studded with neologisms derived from African language and legends (a helpful glossary provides both meanings and derivations). Her inspiring characters, many of whom riff on familiar archetypes (expectant mother, bickering lovers, supportive elder), persevere through extraordinary…