MENDING BODIES
BY HON LAI CHU
《縫身》韓麗珠著
Mending Bodies is a surrealist novel about a young woman’s resistance against absurd socio-bureaucratic powers. It is defiant, incisive, and explores what it means for a person to be free—if we can ever be free.
In an unnamed city, the government enacts a law called the Conjoinment Act, instructing men and women to get physically sewn together based on their height, weight, metabolism, and age. Soon society believes conjoinment is the only path to a fulfilled life. Although conjoined citizens receive economic support and lifelong partners, they are prone to physical discomfort and are too hindered to conduct rebellious acts.
The protagonist, a student in her final year of university, struggles against her ill-fated joining. As she makes conjoinment the subject of her research, she forms significant, if fleeting, relationships with key figures of her life and toils through love and friendship that challenge her identity and values. Overcome by pressure from the people she trusts and respects, the protagonist makes a drastic decision to escape the life society has set for her.
Two Lines Press, 2025
Mending Bodies is a winner of PEN Presents by the English PEN. Read an excerpt here.