_THE SEEP _(Soho Press)A BLEND OF SEARING SOCIAL COMMENTARY AND
SPECULATIVE FICTION, CHANA PORTER’S FRESH, POINTED DEBUT IS PERFECT
FOR FANS OF JEFF VANDERMEER AND CARMEN MARIA MACHADO_._
Trina Goldberg-Oneka is a fifty-year-old trans woman whose life is
irreversibly altered in the wake of a gentle—but nonetheless
world-changing—invasion by an alien entity called The Seep. Through
The Seep, everything is connected. Capitalism falls, hierarchies and
barriers are broken down; if something can be imagined, it is
possible.
Trina and her wife, Deeba, live blissfully under The Seep’s utopian
influence—until Deeba begins to imagine what it might be like to be
reborn as a baby, which will give her the chance at an even better
life. Using Seeptech to make this dream a reality, Deeba moves on to a
new existence, leaving Trina devastated.
Heartbroken and deep into an alcoholic binge, Trina follows a lost boy
she encounters, embarking on an unexpected quest. In her attempt to
save him from The Seep, she will confront not only one of its most
avid devotees, but the terrifying void that Deeba has left behind. A
strange new elegy of love and loss, The Seep explores grief,
alienation, and the ache of moving on.
Praise for _The Seep_:
"A unique alien invasion story that focuses on the human and the
myriad ways we see and don't see our own world. Mesmerizing."--Jeff
VanderMeer, award-winning author of _Dead Astronauts _and the Borne
trilogy
"The standard canard is that utopian settings are boring, monolithic,
didactic, and make for bad fiction. How lucky we are to have Chana
Porter to blow such nonsense out of the water with this moving and
beautiful book."--China Miéville
"The psychedelics are coming! The psychedelics are coming! What if
becoming one with the universe was as easy as drinking punch at a
party? It turns out that after enlightenment, we still squabble with
our partners, worry about fashion choices, and drink too much booze. A
great speculative work combining first contact tropes, techno-utopian
fantasy, gender theory, and ayahuasca fan fiction, CHANA
PORTER'S _The Seep_ imagines a brave newer world by rewriting the
question of the ancients: If all things return to the one, where does
the one return to? PORTER'S DAZZLING TRICK ANSWER UPDATES ZHAOZHOU'S:
the bar."
--Eugene Lim, author of _Dear Cyborgs_
"With its wonderfully fraught utopia, the likes of which you have
never seen before, _The Seep_ defies not only the recent glut of
dystopias, but the long-accepted categories of fiction. An entire
universe gets packed into a slim page-turner, in which the search for
meaning carries on even after our greatest desires are met."--Robert
Repino, author of the War with No Name novels
"In a time of dreary dystopias, CHANA PORTER'S _The Seep_ is that
rarest of books: a genuine utopian hope of salvation. While the NOVEL
ACCOMPLISHES THIS THROUGH AN ALIEN INTERVENTION, its message is not
simply one of blind optimism, but a complex portrait of people
struggling with change, fear, and ultimately hope. PORTER SHOWS US
THAT THE END OF THE WORLD IS EASY. The beginning of the world is the
real challenge."--Rachel Pollack, award-winning author of _Godmother
Night_
"In PORTER'S SURREAL, introspective DEBUT, a benevolent alien invasion
leads humanity into a utopia, exploring themes of grief and
discontentment within a seemingly perfect world . . . Readers will
delight in the eerie disquietude and optimism of this well-calibrated
what-if."--_Publishers Weekly_, Starred Review
"This surreal DEBUT TAKES ON THEMES OF UTOPIA, identity, love, and
loss, while readers are pulled into a full experience through PORTER'S
FLUID PROSE. This unusual story will linger long past the last
page."--_Library Journal_, Starred Review
CHANA PORTER is a playwright, teacher, MacDowell Colony fellow, and
co-founder of The Octavia Project, a STEM and fiction-writing program
for girls and gender non-conforming youth from underserved
communities. She lives in Brooklyn, New York, and is currently at work
on her next novel.
AGNES BORINSKY is a playwright and performer, based in Los Angeles. 3
Hole Press published her play, _Brief Chronicle, Books 6-8_. Her YA
NOVEL, _Sasha Masha_, is forthcoming in 2020 from FSG. She has made
work in bedrooms, backyards, basements, bars, and theaters. She works,
sometimes, too, at Skylight Books.
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01/02/2020 Last update