“Sublimation” by Isabel J. Kim

This was an incredible book, especially considering it’s a debut novel (though Kim has been writing short fiction for a while). It has much to say about a lot of contemporary topics: immigration & diaspora, identity, tech company dominance, and more generally, the proverbial road not taken.

The book is set in the present day, with society pretty much the same as it is right now, but with one major change: the phenomenon of “instancing.” When crossing a border, a person will sometimes “instance” - one version of them will undertake the journey, another of them will stay behind. Usually it happens when the person travelling is reluctant or conflicted about leaving, but it’s unpredictable. The instances - now two different people, but with the same memories - go off in different directions. At any point later, they can merge back together; a simple physical touch is all it takes. The two collapse into one, retaining the memories and experiences of both lives as they happened during the split.

The primary protagonist of this book is Soyoung/Rose. As a child, Soyoung and her mother left South Korea for the United States, and both instanced. Soyoung remained in Korea, and her instance, known eventually as Rose, lives in New York. The secondary protagonist is Yujin, who instanced as a college student when he left to do a semester in New York. The version in New York calls himself YJ; the version in Korea remained Yujin, and reconnected with his childhood friend Soyoung. Soyoung/Rose and Yujin/YJ are very different in how they handle being instances. Soyoung & Rose haven’t spoken in the 20-ish years since they instanced, and probably never would have again except for Soyoung contacting Rose to tell her that their grandfather had died (setting the events of the book in motion). Yujin & YJ speak frequently and have planned their lives thoroughly; they always intended to reintegrate after YJ obtained American citizenship, allowing the recombined Yujin to claim dual citizenship.

If there’s one thing that impressed me most about this book - and there’s a lot that impressed me - it’s just how thoroughly Kim thought this out. She has given thought to all of history and culture in this version of the world, and how instancing would shift everything. How different cultures might treat instances. How citizenship laws would have to be adapted. How mythology and legend might change (Odysseus left an instance behind when he left Ithaca for Troy; the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil is now the Tree of the Knowledge of Delineation. There’s also a great deal about a Korean folk song called Arirang, but I’m afraid that one is outside my experience.) The divided Korea is an ever-present backdrop; neither Yujin nor Soyoung thinks about it too much, but Soyoung’s grandfather was from the north and (they think, maybe) left an instance behind when he fled south. It colors the whole story, and I am very curious how much of this is autobiographical.

This is one I’m going to be thrusting at people left and right.