From the acclaimed author of Severance comes a story collection that is breathtaking in its imaginative feat
From the acclaimed author of Severance comes a story collection that is breathtaking in its imaginative feat
What happens when fantasy tears through 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. From a woman who lives in a house with all of her ex-boyfriends, to a toxic friendship built around a drug that makes you invisible, to an ancient ritual that might heal you of anything if you bury yourself alive, these and other scenarios reveal that the outlandish and the everyday are shockingly, deceptively, heartbreakingly similar.
Winner of The Story Prize 2022 (United States) Winner of Fiction, National Book Critics Circle Awards 2022 (United States) Short-listed for Mark Twain American Voice in Literature Award 2023 (United States)
“'Severanceis the best work of fiction I've read yet about the millennial condition...One of my favourite novels of the year.'”
‘Ling Ma is a master at subverting expectations. The stories in this collection progress in a pleasantly disorienting way, drifting through dreamlike scenarios that are at turns nightmarish, queasy, funny, or some combination of all three. Bliss Montage presents a strange and compelling intersection between stark realism and absurd fantasy. It all adds up to a uniquely satisfying reading experience.’ Nick Drnaso, author of Sabrina
‘We know that the false and the true—like bliss and misery—are interlaced in the lifeworlds of globalized capitalism, but no one explores the affective contours and sensuous texture of that intermingling in the way Ling Ma does. In this riveting collection of stories, in which one is alternately startled, horrified, and delighted, Ma stands out once again as one of the most original writers of her generation.’ Sianne Ngai, author of Ugly Feelings
‘[Bliss Montage] uses elements of the fantastic but grounds them in a reality that is more recognizably our own...The ideas of home and belonging recur throughout the collection...Ma also writes about motherhood and academic life and abusive relationships. These are rich themes, and [she] explores them with the logic of dreams...Haunting and artful.’ Kirkus Reviews (starred review)
‘[A] fantastical and often brilliant collection...Enchanting, full of intelligence, dry humor, and an appealing self-awareness.’ Publishers Weekly
‘Elegantly labyrinthine stories that are very pleasurable to read.’ Roxane Gay
‘A lyrical, potent [book] that blends fantasy and reality to dazzling effect . . . Ma seamlessly blends the real and the unreal with astonishing confidence and care . . . Another triumph for Ma.’ BookPage (starred review)
‘A collection of short stories that subvert our deepest illusions about one’s self . . . Unpredictable and sharp, Ma’s writing is unlike any other.’ Pop Sugar
‘Dreamy stories, each with a foot in the fantastic and the other foot firmly in the appalling everyday.’ Lit Hub
‘[A] rich and capacious collection, a montage which begs to be viewed over and over again.’ Strange Horizons
‘This delightfully strange dip back into Ma’s brain is as wonderful as you expect. It touches on what amounts to the greatest hits of human existence: friendship, love, the meaning of home and why we need each other. Read it. Just read it.’ Good Housekeeping
‘Strange, wonderful, and uniquely poignant. Ma’s stark and pointed prose shines here, and each story deserves multiple readings, sure to supply newly discovered emotions each time.’ Tor.com
‘Surreal and jarring in the most sensational way...A fantastical collection that grows more and more captivating with each page.’ Booklist
‘[Ma] does not disappoint.’ Book Riot
‘Ma has a gift for deliciously surreal premises…Weird and wonderful, surreal and subversive, these stories prove that Ma is well on her way to a landmark career.’ Esquire
‘Undeniably compelling.’ Denizen
‘Ma deftly captures the mood of what she has referred to as “compromised pleasure”…These stories tweak the everyday to allow us to question the mirages scaffolding our reality.’ Financial Times
‘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.’ Time
‘A surreal collection.’ Buzzfeed News
‘Ideally situated to the moment.’ Literary Hub
‘[A] rich and capacious collection, a montage which begs to be viewed over and over again.’ Strange Horizons
‘An assured follow-up [to Severance], a striking collection...Ma’s imagination operates on the same chimerical frequency as those of Helen Oyeyemi, Samanta Schweblin, Meng Jin...Ma’s stories stay with you—evidence of a gifted writer curious about the limits of theoretical possibility.’ New York Times
‘This collection is essential—it’s like a deep and clean breath of fresh air.’ Jaclyn Crupi
‘Ma’s stories effortlessly gloss the absurd over the quotidian, holding perfect equilibrium between what is realistic and what’s so bluntly, obviously bizarre as to feel real. I blasted through this book in a day and couldn’t stop…Incredibly potent.’ Tor.com
‘Uncanny and haunting…The genius of Ma’s stories is unearthed in how she stretches the boundaries of the world while zooming in on the details that matter most.’ Washington Post
‘Haunting…Ling Ma writes with such authority that we readers are simply swept along.’ NPR
‘Wildly inventive…The tension between the familiar and the unfathomable pulses on every page.’ Vogue
‘A surreal and wild read thorough varying levels of reality, as well as love, loneliness, motherhood, possession and home.’ Harper’s Bazaar (Australia)
‘A delightfully strange, fantastical and subversive collection…For fans of George Saunders and readers who generally enjoy having their minds bent.’ WellRead
‘No one writes quite like Ling Ma…Beautiful, heartbreaking, absurd and laugh-out-loud funny, all at once.’ Readings
‘The discomforts that define everyday reality are stretched and deformed until they detonate like a balloon that has been twisted too tightly…Ma’s book can be eaten in one gulp.’ New Scientist
‘The prose is so strong, and these stories are all so different, so it’s tough to say which is the one that people will be talking about (For the record: this is a good thing)…They reflect the real pains and anxieties of family, romantic, and work relationships.’ Third Coast Review
‘Rich with onscreen potential.’ Hollywood Reporter
‘Sometimes fantastical, sometimes grounded so thoroughly in family that the narrators feel trapped or weighed down. In all of them, the female narrator seeks a way to do more than endure.’ Daily Kos
‘Eight equally far-out stories…each one its own deadpan flight of fancy, sly and strange.’ Entertainment Weekly
‘[Ling Ma’s] remarkable new collection of weirdness.’ Chicago Tribune
‘[Ling Ma] is a master at subverting our expectations and asking us what happens when fantasy tears through the screen of the everyday…Highly recommend this collection, I loved it.’ RNZ: Nine to Noon
‘Eight stories that pack a punch…Each tale is a wonder.’ South Coast Today
‘Delightfully strange…Read it. Just read it.’ Good Housekeeping
‘Unique and fascinating.’ Through the Biblioscope
‘Just eight stories, but they hit the page with startling and singular force…Bliss Montage is an impressive collection from a confident, intelligent and powerfully original writer.’ New Zealand Listener
‘Each short story has its own odd hook, but Ling Ma is equally interested in how these fabulist events affect the more mundane ways characters relate to one another and themselves. Throughout all they encounter, the characters still course with the structures that shape them—gender, race, power, family…Ma again shows her ability to write grounded character studies in worlds almost as bizarre as our own.’ Big Issue
‘I loved this collection…Through the surreality you’re getting closer to reality…I was blown away, I think [Ling Ma] is brilliant.’ ABC RN Bookshelf
‘In Bliss Montage, Ma proves herself as an esteemed voice of the 21st century…It is an exemplary work of literature, composed with talent and purpose. The experience of reading Ma’s latest collection can best be described by a word taken straight from its title: bliss.’ Harvard Crimson
‘Bliss Montage had me on the first page. I’ll always be pulled in by a strong protagonist that touches on life’s complexities with bluntness and sharp humour, and that’s who Ling Ma artfully conjures up back-to-back as one story ends and another starts to take off.’ GQ
‘There is plenty of strange, subversive pleasure…to be found in these stories, including consumerist satire, an invisibility drug binge, and a guide to yeti sex—yes, you read that right.’ Wired
‘This collection by acclaimed writer Ling Ma has remarkable momentum, each story deliciously crashing into the next, driven forward by the voices of women seeking surrender, validation, and destruction, punctuated by bright notes of humour.’ Electric Lit
‘Ling Ma’s style of writing is so unique…Master storytelling…Definitely in the ‘must-read pile!’ NZ Booklovers
‘Surreal, disturbing and subversive, these stories from a brilliantly original writer tackle everything from the immigrant experience to redemption through to being buried alive.’ NZ Listener
‘Bliss Montage slips into the space that emerges when our grasp of practical reality eases and our sense for psychedelic possibilities expands…By draping her stories in the language and atmosphere of the surreal, Ma challenges us to try our hand at the lost art of interpretation.’ Nation
‘What sets Ma’s work apart from much contemporary fiction is that the contemporary world is not simply around her characters, it’s part of them and their lives, intrinsic to their thought patterns—which is one of the reasons her writing feels so relevant and authentic.’ Canberra Times
‘To read Ma’s work is to step into her meticulously crafted worlds where fantasy and reality bleed into one another…Like the bliss montage that this story collection is named after, Ma’s stories are ones I want to revisit again and again.’ PopMatters
‘Eight reality-bending tales remove us just far enough from the world we recognise into one where the ordinary and extraordinary become eerily indistinguishable.’ New Zealand Fashion Quarterly
‘The escapist visions float along each page with meaningful agency and haunting recognition…Ma’s ability to subvert your expectations of how a story may unfold is genius and every character plays their role with a dash of emotional dampening…A round of applause to this novel.’ Sauce Mag
‘A fever dream where the real and surreal have merged into one…Ma takes familiar situations and pushes them to their extremes.’ South Side Weekly
‘By stretching the comprehensibility of language, playing with surrealist imagery, and experimenting with formal conceits, Ma’s collection explores how fiction might respond to pressing questions of contemporary politics…When I finished Bliss Montage, I felt disorientated, adrift in a sea of indeterminacy—which is exactly why I wanted to turn back to the first page and read the collection all over again.’ Los Angeles Review of Books
‘Ling Ma really can do it all! Funny, original, crushing, tense…’ Tara Kenny, Liminal
Ling Ma is a writer hailing from Fujian, Utah and Kansas. She is the author of the novel Severance, which received the Kirkus Prize, the Whiting Award and the NYPL Young Lions Fiction Award. She lives in Chicago with her family.
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