Cecilia
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- Pre-Order
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- Expected 6 Jun 2024
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- £6.99
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- Pre-Order
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- £6.99
Publisher Description
'Rowdy and razor-sharp' Alexandra Kleeman
An erotic, surreal novella about the ecstasies of intense friendships and obsessive love
Seven, who works as a cleaner at a chiropractor’s office, re-encounters Cecilia, a woman who has obsessed her since their school days.
As the two of them board the same bus – each dubiously claiming not to be following the other – their chance meeting spurs a series of intensely vivid and corporeal memories. As past and present bleed together, Seven can feel her desire begin to unmoor her from the flow of time.
Smart, subversive and gripping, Cecilia is a winding, misty road trip through bodily transformation, inextricable histories of violence and love, and the ghosts of girlhood friendship.
PRAISE FOR K-MING CHANG
BESTIARY
‘Chang’s prose ravishes, ravages, rampages. An absolute lightning strike of a debut’ Kelly Link
‘To read K-Ming Chang is to see the world in fresh, surreal technicolour… wild and lyrical, visionary and touching’ Sharlene Teo
‘Fierce and funny, full of magic and grit’ Tash Aw
GODS OF WANT
‘Blisteringly alive and unapologetically queer’ Guardian
‘Strange, hilarious and unforgettable… a gift and a masterclass’ Bryan Washington
‘Chang rewrites the world as a place of radical transformation’ New York Times Book Review
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
A 24-year-old woman is flooded with fraught memories of her early teen years after encountering an estranged friend in Chang's striking latest (after Organ Meats). Seven works as a cleaner in a chiropractor's office and still lives at home with her mother and grandmother Ama, whose fantastical stories shape the family's mythology and Seven's obsession with human waste (Ama says she was thrown into a well as an infant, then later rescued from a nearby city's toilet and immediately put to work cleaning it). At her job, Seven listens through the bathroom door while others pee, visualizing the receptionist's discreet trickle as "the rain in movies." Her odd routine is upended by the appearance of Cecilia, whom she hasn't seen since they were 13. As they ride the bus together, Seven reminisces about eating Cecilia's stray hairs and chewed-up snacks in middle school, and how the two would practice kissing in the school bathroom. Their friendship dissolved after a bizarre sexual encounter, which produced mutual feelings of hurt and shame. As Chang works up to the details of that incident, she explores the ways in which the body can elicit both desire and disgust, and offers an original look at the volatility of a teen friendship. It's another high-water mark from a prolific and provocative author.
