Corey Fah Does Social Mobility

Isabel Waidner

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Corey Fah was shortlisted for the Arthur C. Clarke Award 2024 and longlisted for the Nota Bene Prize 2024. In flight from a traumatic rural childhood, Corey Fah has come to earth in a one-bed council flat in the capital. Trapped, with partner Drew, in the limited world which late capitalism has allotted them, they are modestly happy but practically futureless. Until, one day, Corey is offered a life-changing prize from out of the blue. Things are looking up – but as Corey soon finds, it's one thing winning a prize in life's lottery, and quite another being able to collect it – especially if you are a queer, working class immigrant with all of History working against you. Corey Fah's pursuit of the elusive prize – and an escape from precarity – is a whirlwind, epic journey through the streets of the city and the time-loops of the past, written with boundless energy and invention. Social mobility, in this radiant, radical novel, is never a simple step up the ladder, but a hopeful leap into the void.