Sublimation is the debut novel by Isabel J. Kim, winner of two Nebula Awards, the Locus Award, the British Science Fiction Award, and the Shirley Jackson Award, and a finalist for the 2025 Hugo Award and 2023 Astounding Award.

“In this dazzling parable of connection and isolation, Isabel J. Kim’s vividly crafted characters navigate identity, belonging, and the weight of a divided history.” —Scott Westerfeld, New York Times bestselling author of Uglies and The Mortons

The border cuts you in two.

When you immigrate, you leave a copy of yourself behind. One person enters their new country, the other stays trapped at home.

Some instances keep in touch, call each other daily, keep their lives and minds in sync in the hopes of reintegrating and resuming a life as one person. Others, like Soyoung Rose Kang, leave home at ten and never speak to their other selves again. Rose, in America, never imagined going back to Korea until her grandfather dies and her Korean instance calls her home for the funeral. When she arrives, she discovers that Soyoung plans to steal her body and live her life whether Rose wants to reintegrate or not.

Sublimation is a literary speculative fiction novel that pits the lives we choose against the lives we leave behind. It’s an immigrant story like no other, capturing the longing for another life and twisting it into a dangerous game of cat-and-mouse.