Mythopoeic Fantasy Award for Adult Literature Best Book (nominee)
Nebula Awards Best Novella (nominee)
World Fantasy Best Novella (nominee)
Inspired by the pulps, film noir, and screwball comedy, Passing Strange is a story as unusual and complex as San Francisco itself from World Fantasy Award winning author Ellen Klages, and a finalist for the 2017 Nebula Award for Best Novella
San Francisco in 1940 is a haven for the unconventional. Tourists flock to the cities within the city: the Magic City of the World’s Fair on an island created of artifice and illusion; the forbidden city of Chinatown, a separate, alien world of exotic food and nightclubs that offer “authentic” experiences, straight from the pages of the pulps; and the twilight world of forbidden love, where outcasts from conventional society can meet.
Six women find their lives as tangled with each other’s as they are with the city they call home. They discover love and danger on the borders where magic, science, and art intersect.
At the Publisher's request, this title is being sold without Digital Rights Management Software (DRM) applied.
Genre: Fantasy
San Francisco in 1940 is a haven for the unconventional. Tourists flock to the cities within the city: the Magic City of the World’s Fair on an island created of artifice and illusion; the forbidden city of Chinatown, a separate, alien world of exotic food and nightclubs that offer “authentic” experiences, straight from the pages of the pulps; and the twilight world of forbidden love, where outcasts from conventional society can meet.
Six women find their lives as tangled with each other’s as they are with the city they call home. They discover love and danger on the borders where magic, science, and art intersect.
At the Publisher's request, this title is being sold without Digital Rights Management Software (DRM) applied.
Genre: Fantasy
Praise for this book
"Ellen Klages's love for queer San Francisco is evident in every line: its history, its mystery, and its people in all their variety and glory. I smiled as I read. You will, too." - Nicola Griffith
"With Passing Strange, Ellen Klages has spun a marvelously gritty tale of the bad old days, deftly weaving a tapestry from bittersweet nostalgia, magic, weirdness, romance, and the ugly truth of being queer in San Francisco at the dawn of WWII. It earns my highest compliment: I wanted more." - Caitlín R Kiernan
"A slice of history, filled with memorable characters, topped by fabulous writing." - Ann Leckie
"Passing Strange is a passing subtle, detailed intergenerational fantasy with a pulp influenced story and a literary sensibility full of the past and the artefacts it leaves behind. Queer history, San Francisco history and a pinch of Weird Tales." - Geoff Ryman
"With Passing Strange, Ellen Klages has spun a marvelously gritty tale of the bad old days, deftly weaving a tapestry from bittersweet nostalgia, magic, weirdness, romance, and the ugly truth of being queer in San Francisco at the dawn of WWII. It earns my highest compliment: I wanted more." - Caitlín R Kiernan
"A slice of history, filled with memorable characters, topped by fabulous writing." - Ann Leckie
"Passing Strange is a passing subtle, detailed intergenerational fantasy with a pulp influenced story and a literary sensibility full of the past and the artefacts it leaves behind. Queer history, San Francisco history and a pinch of Weird Tales." - Geoff Ryman
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Used availability for Ellen Klages's Passing Strange