Now Playing: April 2025

Our April 2025 edition of Now Playing features an existentialist video game and a tiny book full of big delights, all from our contributors!

Vincent James Perrone

I was in Los Angeles the other week for AWP, and while I bought a few dozen fantastic books, the smallest one was Grocery List by Bora Chung, translated by Anton Hur. The physical book—published by Hanuman Editions—is about three inches by four inches, so small you could put it in your pocket and lose it. Fortunately, I did not lose it. I read it. It's a brief novella about food and ghosts and family. Funny, disturbing, and constantly surprising. A book as miraculous in content as it is in form. 

Neeru Nagarajan

I’m a huge fan of the rogue-lite video games, Hades and its brilliant sequel, Hades II. The rogue-lite genre is interesting: You get to keep dying and coming back to life, which sounds like any other video game, but the more you play the game (and the more you, inevitably, die), the stronger you get. And the games remind you not to take any of it seriously.

My favorite interactions in the first game are those between Zagreus, the son of Hades, and Thanatos, Death himself. Zagreus asks Thanatos about mortals’ crippling fear of death and why they grieve so much about it, and Thanatos responds that mortals see life as their one chance. In a lighthearted game where the main character is immortal, this incredibly profound conversation stands out.

Hades was in a league of its own, but Hades II is so vastly different from its predecessor, from the main character to the gameplay mechanics. The sequel is still in early access, which means it’s not yet a complete game – but it will be soon. I’ve been along for the ride since the first sliver of it came out, and I can’t wait for it to be finished.

I might also play Hollow Knight again, a poetic tale of a bug that extends across several magical worlds. The sequel might be coming out later this year. (Look up “Hollow Knight clown makeup” for me, please.)