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The year is 2040 and an envoy of the North American Union finds himself a fugitive in the Southeast Asian nation of Tinhau.
Lucas Lehrer is tasked with travelling from the North American Union to the island-nation of Tinhau to extend the offer of political partnership. When negotiations break down, Lucas decides to request asylum, and he soon encounters an odd series of coincidences in which his deep-seated desires start coming true. Among the backdrop of societal instability and growing nativism, he befriends a young woman who is not what she seems, and who may not be from our universe at all.
“A fantastic tale of the possibility of revolution—both personal and political—inherent in every moment.”
—Ken Liu, multi-award-winning author of The Paper Menagerie and Other Stories
"Lundberg's world-building is constructed from the inside out, ideas wrapped around an underlying architecture of emotion. A smart engaging voice."
—Charles Yu, celebrated author of How to Live Safely in a Science Fictional Universe
“Lundberg has the enviable talent of achieving emotionally resonant effects within just a few pages.”
—The Guardian
“Lundberg explores the randomness of magical occurrences and how a life without magic can be just as deadening as it is safe.”
—The Green Man Review
"Through communiqués, missives and the common email, relationships unfold and splinter within a futuristic world ruled by religiosity and prejudice, mirroring our present-day political climate in terrifying but revelatory ways. Diary of One Who Disappeared also convincingly offers a morality tale about how the ramifications of our actions and thoughts, even our unconscious desires, extend beyond the realm of our known universe.”
—Cyril Wong, Singapore Literature author of Ten Things My Father Never Taught Me
“A story of interpersonal and international politics, a haunting exploration of how one defines and redefines oneself, a thriller and a human tale of personal growth. If you are looking for intelligent, thought-provoking speculative fiction, board the airship from the repressive North American Union to cosmopolitan Tinhau. Readers of thoughtful, humane fiction are in for a treat.”
—John Kessel, Nebula Award-winning author of The Moon and the Other
“A wildly inventive epistolary narrative that’s equal parts 1984, The Twilight Zone, The Adventures of Luther Arkwright, and Claremont-era X-Men. Lose yourself in a world where digital technology collides with airships, phlogiston cannon, pirates and tesseracts; and where love or loss may be…just an alternate universe away.”
—Victor Fernando R. Ocampo, author of The Infinite Library and Other Stories
Jason Erik Lundberg was born in New York, grew up in North Carolina, and has lived in Singapore since 2007. He is the author and anthologist of over two dozen books, including A Fickle and Restless Weapon (2020), Most Excellent and Lamentable (2019), Diary of One Who Disappeared (2019), Carol the Coral (2016), Strange Mammals (2013), Embracing the Strange (2013), The Alchemy of Happiness (2012), Fish Eats Lion (2012), Red Dot Irreal (2011), the six-book Bo Bo and Cha Cha children’s picture book series (2012–2015), and the biennial Best New Singaporean Short Stories anthology series (est. 2013).
He is also the fiction editor at Epigram Books (where the books he’s edited have won multiple awards, and made various year’s best lists since 2012), as well as the founding editor of LONTAR: The Journal of Southeast Asian Speculative Fiction (2012–2018). His writing has been anthologised widely, shortlisted for multiple awards, honourably mentioned twice in The Year’s Best Fantasy and Horror, and translated into half a dozen languages. A Fickle and Restless Weapon is his first novel, and twenty-fifth book.
