This Will Be Difficult To Explain and Other Stories by Johanna Skibsrud; designed by Michel Vrana (Hamish Hamilton Canada)
What kills me about this design is how perfectly it delivers on the promise of the title. From a distance the cover is a pale blur, and you think, “Something’s going on here.” On closer inspection you notice the pale blur is a blank colour-by-numbers image of a woman’s face, and you think, “What is going on here?” Book in hand, you notice the physical details – the laid paper, the colour-by-numbers legend on the spine – and you marvel at it without having any idea what it is you’re looking at. You have to unlock it, piece by piece. You read the back, you read the flaps, and you look at the cover again and think, “I guess I’m going to have to buy the book if I’m going to figure it out.” – David A. Gee
