by Jacquelyn Zong-Li Ross
A cheeky debut of short fictions exploring the pitfalls and minor triumphs of the creative process.
Equal parts melody and malaise, The Longest Way to Eat a Melon charts the activities of a cast of speakers who all grapple in their own ways with what it takes to conjure a self in the midst of discordance. A brain argues with a non-brain about how to remain productive from a place of exhaustion; two supernaturally inclined twins named Han are separated at birth; and an emerging artist overwhelmed by possibility considers how best to transform a melon into a breakthrough work of art. Incorporating elements of fable, surrealism, satire, and art and cultural criticism, these stories have a playful peculiarity to them, an interweaving of self-deprecation and curiosity, of woe and hope, of absurdity and humanity. Reader, you will want to savour every bite.
Publication: Summer 2025
Publisher:
Sarabande Books
Rights sold:
- North America: Sarabande Books
“Inventive and charming, these stories offer a fishbowl view of what it is to be plunked into adulthood in these absurd, impossible times.”
–Lucy Corin, author of The Swank Hotel
“I’ve been a fan of Jacquelyn Zong-Li Ross’s writing for years and am so happy to see her debut collection cracking into the world. The stories in The Longest Way to Eat a Melon, like most of my favorite stories, feel as if they’ve been written from some alternate dimension just to the side of our own—they’re strange and smart and funny and true. Read them, and then we can all dream against capitalism together.”
–Danielle Dutton, author of Prairie, Dresses, Art, Other
“The turns in Ross’s smart, tender, darkly hilarious narratives are dazzling. At times we sail right off the road, and the beautiful thing about this book is, we survive it every time. These are fables for the future, full of hope.” –River Halen, author of Dream Rooms
“A richly layered text imbued with wit and charm. Jacquelyn Zong-Li Ross is an artist who breaks the mundanity of everyday life into artifacts. I was brought to the center of a gallery where curated notes of familiarity, the thoughts beneath my thoughts, guided me to reinterpret all that was around me. The Longest Way to Eat a Melon transforms everydayness into a metaphor. The meaning of life and its multitudes dance quietly underneath.” –Sheung-King, author of Batshit Seven