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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. 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?
"Gorgeously rendered and deeply unsettling... a sharp, deeply felt first outing from a writer already at the top of her game." —Publishers Weekly (starred review)
""Kim's ability to track her world building into ancient times and modern politics, the emotional rawness of the characters and their many-faceted flaws and choices, and Soyoung/Rose's quest to untangle herself from herself, all make for deeply compelling sf." —Booklist (starred review)
"A layered narrative and exciting plot... Kim offers a unique sci-fi take on diaspora and identity. Hand to fans of Kazuo Ishiguro and China Miéville." —Library Journal
"In this dazzling parable of connection and isolation, Isabel J. Kim's vividly crafted characters navigate identity, belonging, and the weight of a divided history." ―Scott Westerfeld, author of Uglies and The Mortons
"One of the best debuts of the year. Sublimation speaks to our moment, in ways we could not have expected." ―John Scalzi, New York Times bestselling author of Starter Villain
This information about Sublimation was first featured
in "The BookBrowse Review" - BookBrowse's membership magazine, and in our weekly "Publishing This Week" newsletter. Publication information is for the USA, and (unless stated otherwise) represents the first print edition. The reviews are necessarily limited to those that were available to us ahead of publication. If you are the publisher or author and feel that they do not properly reflect the range of media opinion now available, send us a message with the mainstream reviews that you would like to see added.
Any "Author Information" displayed below reflects the author's biography at the time this particular book was published.
Isabel J. Kim lives near New York City in an apartment filled with books and swords. She is the author of numerous short stories and has won the Nebula, Locus, and the Shirley Jackson Award. Her work has been translated into multiple languages and reprinted in multiple best of the year anthologies. When she's not writing, she's practicing law or podcasting. Sublimation is her first novel.
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