Sublimation
-
- $16.99
Publisher Description
An instant USA Today Bestseller | A LibraryReads Bonus Pick | One of the most anticipated books of Summer, according to The New York Times, USA Today, NPR, Forbes, and many more | With starred reviews from Publishers Weekly and BookList
“A mind bending thriller about personhood, homeland nostalgia, global migration, and all forms of alienation.” —R. F. Kuang, #1 New York Times bestselling author of Yellowface
“One of the best debuts of the year.” —John Scalzi, New York Times bestselling author of Starter Villain
Doppelgängers, corporate intrigue, heartbreak, betrayal, and the harsh permanence of the border: Sublimation is a thrilling and provocative debut for fans of Severance that asks what you'd sacrifice for a different life from award-winning author Isabel J. Kim.
The border cuts you in two.
When you immigrate, you leave a copy of yourself behind, an instance. One person enters their new country; the other stays trapped at home.
Some instances keep in touch, call each other daily, keep their lives and minds in sync in the hopes of reintegrating and resuming a life as one person. Others, like Soyoung Rose Kang, leave home at ten years old and never speak to their other selves again. Rose, in America, never imagined going back to Korea until her grandfather died and her Korean instance called her home for the funeral.
She doesn’t know that Soyoung plans to steal her body and her life.
How far would you go to live the choice you didn’t make?
“After Sublimation, the immigrant story will never be the same.” —Junot Díaz, Pulitzer Prize-winning author of The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao
APPLE BOOKS REVIEW
If you’ve ever wondered what would have happened if you chose another path at life’s crossroads, welcome to a world where you can pick both options. In this thoughtful fantasy, when someone is intensely conflicted about whether to settle in a new place or to stay home, they split into two parallel selves, called instances. When Soyoung was 10, her mother decided that they should move from Seoul to New Jersey, and both of them “instanced.” Twenty years later, Korean Soyoung wants to reintegrate with her American self, Rose, but Rose wants to keep her singular life. Their awkward reunion leads them to a secret new technology with global implications for both instancing and reintegration. Sublimation is a taut speculative thriller and a powerful meditation on big issues like the American Dream, immigration, and the fight for autonomy when both government and corporate forces seek control over our bodies. It certainly gave us a lot to chew on, but it’s also an engrossing listen.
