The Gold Persimmon

DEBUT NOVEL In Merbaum’s ferociously inventive full-length debut, Cly is a check-in girl at the Gold Persimmon, a hotel whose soundproofed rooms provide space for guests to indulge their grief in privacy. The job’s strict adherence to hotel procedure and rules provides the bland regularity Cly requires. In a separate reality, Jaime, a nonbinary writer, has arrived at a sex hotel called the Red Orchid to interview for a job. IReaders first follow Cly as her routine is disrupted by a mysterious guest, then experience Jaime’s terror as the Red Orchid is enveloped in an inexplicable fog that leaves them and a handful of hotel guests and employees fighting to survive both their improbable circumstance and each other. Uniting these storylines is a keen examination of human connection, fragility, and survival, both physical and psychological, told in elegant and heartbreaking prose.