Short Stories & Anthologies
![Ling Ma - [object Object] author](https://res.cloudinary.com/readsomnia/image/upload/authors/a_a_ling_ma.jpg)
Bliss Montage: Stories
A new creation by the author of Severance, Bliss Montage crashes through our carefully built mirages.
What happens when fantasy tears the screen of the everyday to wake us up? Could that waking be our end?
In Bliss Montage, Ling Ma brings us eight wildly different tales of people making their way through the madness and reality of our collective delusions: love and loneliness, connection and possession, friendship, motherhood, the idea of home. A woman lives in a house with all her ex-boyfriends. A toxic friendship grows up around a drug that makes you invisible. An ancient ritual might heal you of anything―if you bury yourself alive.
These and other scenarios investigate the ways that the outlandish and the ordinary are shockingly, deceptively, heartbreakingly alike.
What happens when fantasy tears the screen of the everyday to wake us up? Could that waking be our end?
In Bliss Montage, Ling Ma brings us eight wildly different tales of people making their way through the madness and reality of our collective delusions: love and loneliness, connection and possession, friendship, motherhood, the idea of home. A woman lives in a house with all her ex-boyfriends. A toxic friendship grows up around a drug that makes you invisible. An ancient ritual might heal you of anything―if you bury yourself alive.
These and other scenarios investigate the ways that the outlandish and the ordinary are shockingly, deceptively, heartbreakingly alike.
Editorial Reviews
Named a Must Read by Time, Vulture, The Los Angeles Times, The Philadelphia Inquirer, Esquire, Nylon, Gothamist, Associated Press, Fortune, Good Housekeeping, Literary Hub, The Millions, Publishers Weekly, Book Riot, Pop Sugar, Polygon, and Tor.com
"Weird and wonderful, surreal and subversive, these stories prove that Ma is well on her way to a landmark career."
―Adrienne Westenfeld, Esquire
"Swift, smart short stories . . . As always, Ling Ma's big, weird ideas set the stage for keen emotional insights."
―Patrick Rapa, The Philadelphia Inquirer
"Captivating . . . Ma harnesses the pulsating desire and power dynamics present in all relationships, from intimate friendships and haunting romantic entanglements to motherhood and the invisible yet omnipresent ties of ancestors."
―Cady Lang and Angela Haupt, Time
"[Bliss Montage] travels through a series of magically realistic, gently dystopian environments . . . A composite portrait of alienation in fading worlds."
―Erin Schwartz, Vulture
"Stories ...
"Weird and wonderful, surreal and subversive, these stories prove that Ma is well on her way to a landmark career."
―Adrienne Westenfeld, Esquire
"Swift, smart short stories . . . As always, Ling Ma's big, weird ideas set the stage for keen emotional insights."
―Patrick Rapa, The Philadelphia Inquirer
"Captivating . . . Ma harnesses the pulsating desire and power dynamics present in all relationships, from intimate friendships and haunting romantic entanglements to motherhood and the invisible yet omnipresent ties of ancestors."
―Cady Lang and Angela Haupt, Time
"[Bliss Montage] travels through a series of magically realistic, gently dystopian environments . . . A composite portrait of alienation in fading worlds."
―Erin Schwartz, Vulture
"Stories ...
