In the colony of Amatka, language is infrastructural.

Originally published in Swedish in 2012 and translated into English by Tidbeck, Amatka is speculative fiction with the logic of a linguistic nightmare. Its central conceit becomes steadily more unsettling because language does two contradictory jobs at once — it holds the world together, but the requirement to use language correctly also gives authority an extraordinary mechanism of discipline. Objects must be repeatedly named and labelled or they begin to lose their shape, collapsing back into an unstable substance beneath reality. Vanja, an information assistant from the more prosperous colony of Essre, is sent to Amatka to research consumer demand in this world.

Especially good for readers interested in Le Guin, linguistic world-building, unstable realities and books where ontology itself becomes a political problem. 

Edition / Condition: Vintage Books, New York, 2017. First English-language edition, first printing. Paperback. Light shelf wear and minor rubbing to covers and edges; internally clean and unmarked, binding firm. Very good condition.