PP Wong
Advance Praise
'​Wong has the preternatural gift of making the strange familiar and the familiar strange. The world of this novel is a refracted version of our own, with themes of suppression, addiction, celebrity, grief, and love made slightly more magical and slightly more monstrous, but always smart, witty, and relevant.
This novel is a knockout.'
—Annabel Lyon Giller Prize and Governor General's Award finalist,
Women's Prize for Fiction longlist, Consent
‘You may think you recognize the world of PP Wong's Slice the Water: The oppressive whims of a tyrant dictator; an under-resourced small country whose suffering is hidden from the world stage. But the novel is on every page surprising and keenly imagined in its world-building. The stakes are dire. You care deeply about the fate of this village. You're fearful in the face of the hopeful naivete of the teenage protagonist and his friends. A tough story that also manages to be a feast to read.’
—Nalo Hopkinson Hugo, Nebula, and Philip K. Dick Award finalist,
SFWA Damien Knight Grand Master, Brown Girl in the Ring
'A twisty adventure story with endearing, heart-melting characters. Slice the Water is also a biting Swiftian satire that critiques both book-burning despots and techno-progressive elites. PP Wong sweeps her readers up in a fictional universe that feels uniquely alive and wondrously imagined—one that brilliantly reveals our own world.'
—Kevin Chong Giller Prize finalist and juror, The Double Life of Benson Yu
The Story ...
Born on the lush island nation of Mahana, Fred lives under the tyrannical rule of a book-pulping king. When Fred’s father suddenly disappears, he joins an underground movement of dissenters and becomes an unwitting global icon in the fight for Mahanian freedom. Recruited and relocated by an organization that appears sympathetic to his cause, Fred arrives in a seemingly peaceful foreign nation, where the impact of social media and technology creates a new, stranger struggle.
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A dystopian thriller, a speculative fiction, and a coming-of-age story, Wong’s novel thrums with biting bursts of staccato-like prose — a fitting accompaniment to a fascinating exploration of contrasting political systems.
As Fred unpeels layers of truth and sees beyond the optics of altruism and the illusion of choice, Slice the Water unpacks the myriad amplifying impacts of technology, addiction, and complacency.