Spirits Abroad

Drawing inspiration from Asian myth, folklore and her own queer experience, the award-winning Spirits Abroad by Zen Cho will guide you from the mundane to the magical, to enchanted realms inhabited by dragons, vampires and incorrigible grandmothers.

We’ll meet an elderly ex-member of parliament, who recalls her youthful romance with an orang bunian. This was forbidden. Not because her lover was an invisible jungle spirit, but because she was Muslim and he was not. Then a teenage vampire struggles to balance homework, bossy aunties, first love . . . and eating people. A mischievous matriarch returns from the dead to disrupt her own funeral rites, pitting granddaughter against granddaughter. An earth spirit becomes entangled in protracted negotiations with an annoying landlord. And Chang E, the Chinese moon goddess, spins off into outer space – the ultimate metaphor for diaspora.

Across nineteen sparkling stories, this is a journey into magical new worlds of the imagination.

Praise for Zen Cho’s work:

‘An enchanting cross between Georgette Heyer and Susannah Clarke, full of delights and surprises’ -Naomi Novik, author of Uprooted, on Sorcerer to the Crown

‘Phenomenal. This is what it is to be queer and Asian . . . Magical and mundane, fierce and hopeful, Malaysian to the bone – this book is uncompromisingly itself’ – Shelley Parker-Chan, author of She Who Became the Sun on Black Water Sister

Review: Spirits Abroad is a fantastic and fun exploration of the borders between human and spirit and life and death, by one of the best fantasy writers working today — Martha Wells, author of The Murderbot Diaries
By turns hilarious and heartbreaking – and always sharply smart — Aliette de Bodard, author of The Red Scholar’s Wake
Spirits Abroad is speculative fiction at its best! Zen Cho has created a collection of modern-day classics . . . Charming, warm and heartbreakingly relatable, Spirits Abroad is pure magic! — Vanessa Len, author of Only a Monster
Spirits Abroad is deliciously fun, dazzlingly clever, and my favourite-ever short story collection, bar none. Read it now!’ — Stephanie Burgis, author of Snowspelled
Zen Cho’s stories manage the rare and precious feat of being smart, witty, wise, horrific, and comforting all at once — Kate Elliott, author of The Sun Chronicles
Absolutely gorgeous . . . Just as with her novels, Cho merges humor and relatable characters with delightful prose and engaging storylines — Buzzfeed
A swath of delightful and intricate stories from a wildly inventive storyteller — Kirkus Reviews

Format: Paperback
Pages: 352
Imprint: Tor UK
Publication date: 28/11/2023