Tell Me Pleasant Things about Immortality

Description

From the bestselling, Canada Reads-shortlisted author of The Woo-Woo comes a wild, darkly hilarious, and poignant collection of immigrant horror stories. They’ll haunt and consume you—in strange and unsettling ways.

Living forever isn’t everything it’s cracked up to be. Hearts can still break, looks can still fade, and money still matters, even in eternity. The ghosts, zombies, and demons in this collection are all shockingly human, and they’re ready to spill their guts. Vanity, love, and tragedy are all candidly explored as the unfulfilled desires of the dead are echoed in the lives of modern-day immigrants. Story-by-story, the line between ghost and human, life and death, becomes increasingly blurred.

There’s a courtesan from 17th century China who, try as she might, just can’t manage to die. Grandmama Wu, who returns from the dead to protect her grandchildren from bullies. Not to mention an Internet-order bride who inadvertently brings the apocalypse to Nebraska City.

From Shanghai to Vancouver, the women in this collection haunt and are haunted—by first loves, troublesome family members, and traumatic memories. Intertwining horror, the supernatural, and mythology, Tell Me Pleasant Things about Immortality riotously critiques contemporary life and fearlessly illuminates the ways in which the past can devour us. A collection about transformation and what makes us human, it solidifies Lindsay Wong as one of the most vital and electrifying voices in Canadian literature today.”The stories in Tell Me Pleasant Things about Immortality will make you laugh, cry, cringe, and gasp. Here, Lindsay Wong, has created an absurd symphony of tragedy and joy that leads Asian Canadian writing into uncharted and new, incredible, directions. The horrible is hilarious, the tragic is titillating, the morbid is mirthful. In these stories you will find beauty, horror, pleasure, and play.”–Jenny Heijun Wills, author of Older Sister. Not Necessarily Related.

“Fans of the black humour of Lindsay Wong’s debut memoir The Woo-Woo can celebrate. This is a dark, hilarious and utterly brilliant collection that sees Wong unleashing her macabre imagination. Her doomed characters reflect the kaleidoscope of immigrant experiences; the stories skewer “crazy rich Asian” stereotypes and deliver unique insights on intergenerational trauma and culture clash. A must-read!” –Joanna Chiu, author of China Unbound, winner of the Writers’ Trust Shaughnessy Cohen Prize for Political WritingLINDSAY WONG is the author of the critically acclaimed, award-winning, and bestselling memoir The Woo-Woo, which was a finalist for Canada Reads 2019. She has written a YA novel entitled My Summer of Love and Misfortune. Wong holds a BFA in creative writing from the University of British Columbia and an MFA in literary nonfiction from Columbia University. She currently teaches creative writing at the University of Winnipeg. Follow her on Twitter @LindsayMWong, Instagram @Lindsaywong.M, or visit www.lindsaywongwriter.com.CA