Cecilia: A Novella

Cecilia

A surreal novella about the intensity and eroticism of girlhood friendships, the ecstasy of desire and disgust, and matriarchal mythmaking.

Seven, who works as a cleaner at a chiropractor’s office, reencounters Cecilia, a woman who has obsessed her since their school days. As the two of them board the same bus—each dubiously claiming not to be following the other—their chance meeting spurs a series of intensely vivid and corporeal memories. As past and present bleed together, Seven can feel her desire begin to unmoor her from the flow of time.

Smart, subversive, and gripping, Cecilia is a winding, misty road trip through bodily transformation, the inextricable histories of violence and love, and the ghosts of girlhood friendship.

It is forthcoming in the US from Coffee House Press on May 21, 2024 & in the UK from Harvill Secker (2024) on June 6, 2024.

Praise for Cecilia

“Rowdy and razor-sharp, luminescent and enchanting, K-Ming Chang is an utter master of the strange intimacies of the body. To read her work feels like shining a flashlight, finally, on the secret desires and aches that you've always wanted to glimpse.”

- Alexandra Kleeman, author of Something New Under the Sun

“The fantastic and the mundane marry each other like crows on the phantasmagoric pages of Cecilia. K-Ming Chang’s work is bioluminescent and breathtaking. Sharply written and ecologically aware, Cecilia is a magnificent, magical work that will redefine speculative writing for years to come.”

—Vi Khi Nao

“An incendiary look at desire's ability to bind and destroy. Fierce, erotic, devastating: Cecilia is a work of genius.”

—Brynne Rebele-Henry

“K-Ming Chang’s spell-binding tale of queer desire moved me to tears by the end. Seven’s obsession with Cecilia is rendered through lyrical prose that startled and disarmed me, reminding me of how vulnerable and frightening it is to want someone you are destined to lose. The narrative voice got under my skin and I couldn’t stop thinking about the characters’ fierce hunger for the freedom to be themselves.”

—Nghiem Tran

“Cecilia is one of those rare reads bursting with staggering imagination and poetry that makes you feel you're having an out-of-body experience with the turn of every page. Not only that, it's also incredibly profound, often disturbing and funny.”

—Fernando A. Flores