The co-op bookstore for avid readers
Book Cover for: Corey Fah Does Social Mobility, Isabel Waidner

Corey Fah Does Social Mobility

Isabel Waidner

Reader Score

64%

64% of readers

recommend this book

Critic Reviews

Great

Based on 9 reviews on

BookMarks logo

A novel that celebrates radical queer survival and gleefully takes a hammer to false notions of success

This is the story of Corey Fah, a writer who has hit the literary jackpot: their novel has just won the prize for the Fictionalization of Social Evils. But the actual trophy, and with it the funds, hovers peskily out of reach.

Neon-beige, with UFO-like qualities, the elusive trophy leads Corey, with their partner Drew and eight-legged companion Bambi Pavok, on a spectacular quest through their childhood in the Forest and an unlikely stint on reality TV. Navigating those twin horrors, along with wormholes and time loops, Corey learns--the hard way--the difference between a prize and a gift.

Following the Goldsmiths Prize-winning Sterling Karat Gold, Isabel Waidner's bold and buoyant new novel is about coming into one's own, the labor of love, the tendency of history to repeat itself, and what ensues when a large amount of cultural capital is suddenly deposited in a place it has never been before.

Book Details

  • Publisher: Graywolf Press
  • Publish Date: Feb 6th, 2024
  • Pages: 160
  • Language: English
  • Edition: undefined - undefined
  • Dimensions: 7.90in - 4.90in - 0.60in - 0.40lb
  • EAN: 9781644452691
  • Categories: LiterarySatireVisionary & Metaphysical

About the Author

Isabel Waidner is the author of Sterling Karat Gold, We Are Made of Diamond Stuff, and Gaudy Bauble. They are the winner of the Goldsmiths Prize 2021 and co-founded the event series Queers Read This. They live in London.

Critics’ reviews

Praise for this book

"Buckle up! Corey Fah Does Social Mobility is a head-spinning, mind-bending roller coaster of fun, horror, and subversion. I love it."--Kamila Shamsie

"The pure fun and sheer weirdness of Isabel Waidner's mind cannot be matched; with each book, they get better and better. . . . This is that rare thing: An authentically radical novel that is joyful and hilarious."--Merve Emre

Rare . . . a novel with real stylistic and political ambition"--Zadie Smith, The Guardian

"Waidner's original prose spins fantastical imagery with social commentary."--Frieze (UK), Editor's Pick

"A dazzlingly original satirical novel about a writer on the edge of glory but struggling to get their hands on the prize."-- Harper's Bazaar (UK)

"In Corey Fah Does Social Mobility, Waidner gifts us with another wild and radical tale."-- Hero (UK)