SUBLIMATION
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 and never speak to their other selves again. Rose, in America, never imagined going back to Korea until her grandfather dies and her Korean instance calls her home for the funeral. When she arrives, she discovers that Soyoung plans to steal her body and live her life whether Rose wants to reintegrate or not.
Sublimation is a literary speculative fiction novel that pits the lives we choose against the lives we leave behind. It’s an immigrant story like no other, capturing the longing for another life and twisting it into a dangerous game of cat-and-mouse.
NICE THINGS PEOPLE HAVE SAID
“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
“Sublimation speaks to one of our world’s greatest and most ubiquitous crises—the border—with the terrible precision of open-heart surgery.” —Vajra Chandrasekera, Nebula Award-winning author of The Saint of Bright Doors
“An unsettling and suspenseful narrative about the borders that cross us and the selves we subsequently leave behind.” —Anton Hur, author of Toward Eternity
“Sublimation expertly weaves myth, fairy tales, and science fiction within an electrifying contemporary thriller to explore identity, memory, and the whims of borders.” —Jade Song, Author of Chlorine
“I have never felt more seen by a book in my life.” —Ai Jiang, Nebula and Ignyte Award-winning author of Linghun
“Sublimation is a heartrending and mind-bending novel about our slippery sense identity and desire—Essential reading for understanding today’s reality.” —Stephanie Feldman, author of Saturnalia
“You can become the person who read this book, or the person who didn't. Don't be the one left behind.” —Seth Dickinson, author of The Traitor Baru Cormorant
photo & collage credits: Isabel J. Kim