Tell Me Pleasant Things About Immortality

Stories

By: Lindsay Wong

Narrated by: Eunice Wong, Nancy Wu, Garland Chang, Austin Ku

SHORTLISTED FOR THE BC AND YUKON JIM DEVA PRIZE FOR WRITING THAT PROVOKES

From the bestselling, Canada Reads-shortlisted author of The Woo-Woo comes a wild, darkly hilarious, and poignant collection of immigrant horror stories. They’ll haunt and consume you—in strange and unsettling ways.

Living forever isn’t everything it’s cracked up to be. Hearts can still break, looks can still fade, and money still matters, even in eternity. The ghosts, zombies, and demons in this collection are all shockingly human, and they’re ready to spill their guts. Vanity, love, and tragedy are all candidly explored as the unfulfilled desires of the dead are echoed in the lives of modern-day immigrants. Story-by-story, the line between ghost and human, life and death, becomes increasingly blurred.

There’s a courtesan from 17th century China who, try as she might, just can’t manage to die. Grandmama Wu, who returns from the dead to protect her grandchildren from bullies. Not to mention an Internet-order bride who inadvertently brings the apocalypse to Nebraska City.

From Shanghai to Vancouver, the women in this collection haunt and are haunted—by first loves, troublesome family members, and traumatic memories. Intertwining horror, the supernatural, and mythology, Tell Me Pleasant Things about Immortality riotously critiques contemporary life and fearlessly illuminates the ways in which the past can devour us. A collection about transformation and what makes us human, it solidifies Lindsay Wong as one of the most vital and electrifying voices in Canadian literature today.

©2023 Lindsay Wong (P)2023 Penguin Canada

Critic reviews

One of
CBC's "32 Canadian books to read in spring 2023"
CBC’s “30 highly anticipated Canadian titles coming this year”
CBC’s “14 Canadian Collections to check out”
Chatelaine’s “9 New Books To Read This Winter”
Winnipeg Free Press’s “15 books to watch for in the first half of 2023”
Electric Lit's "7 Books About Grotesque Bodies: BIPOC writers on the margins get physical in their search for identity"

“Drenched in morbidly dark humour, this collection of extremely entertaining immigrant horror stories reflects on class, death and family trauma.” —The Globe and Mail

“[A] haunting and darkly comic collection peopled by unforgettable characters.” —Chatelaine

“From a hair-chomping grandma ghost to nine-tail fox demons who snack on frat boys, the women of Tell Me Pleasant Things about Immortality are moody, sharp-tongued, and subversive. With humour and mischief, Lindsay Wong spins horrifying tales across continents and centuries. These stories slither through uncanny worlds and dredge up deep feelings of alienation, longing, and shame. Eccentric and unforgettable.” —Pik-Shuen Fung, author of Ghost Forest