"Part suspenseful romp, part meditation on human connection, The Gold Persimmon is a riveting debut. In twin hotels-one for people seeking escape from grief, one for people seeking escape in sex-Lindsay Merbaum's captivating characters confront profound questions about identity, loss, fear, and desire." -Helen Phillips, author of The Need
Clytemnestra is a check-in girl at The Gold Persimmon, a temple-like New York City hotel with gilded furnishings and carefully guarded secrets. Cloistered in her own reality, Cly lives by a strict set of rules until a connection with a troubled hotel guest threatens the world she's so carefully constructed.
In a parallel reality, an inexplicable fog envelops the city, trapping a young, nonbinary writer named Jaime in a sex hotel with six other people. As the survivors begin to turn on one another, Jaime must navigate a deadly game of cat and mouse.
Haunted by specters of grief and familial shame, Jaime and Cly find themselves trapped in dual narratives in this gripping experimental novel that explores sexuality, surveillance, and the very nature of storytelling.