The Perishing – Hill Nadell Literary Agency

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(Hardcover, November 2021) (Paperback, November 2022)

Natashia Deón
The Perishing
(Counterpoint Press, November 2021)

Finalist for the NAACP Image Award
Finalist for the Hurston/Wright Legacy Award in Fiction
Crime Reads’ Best Historical Fiction Book of the Year
Entropy Best Book of the Year
October’s Book of the Month Selection
November 2021 Indie Next Pick

An extraordinary novel featuring a Black immortal in 1930’s Los Angeles who must recover the memory of her past in order to save the world.

Lou, a young Black woman, wakes up in an alley in 1930s Los Angeles, nearly naked and with no memory of how she got there or where she’s from, only a fleeting sense that this isn’t the first time she’s found herself in similar circumstances. Taken in by a caring foster family, Lou dedicates herself to her education while trying to put her mysterious origins behind her. She’ll go on to become the first Black female journalist at the Los Angeles Times, but Lou’s extraordinary life is about to become even more remarkable. When she befriends a firefighter at a downtown boxing gym, Lou is shocked to realize that though she has no memory of ever meeting him she’s been drawing his face since her days in foster care.

Increasingly certain that their paths have previously crossed–perhaps even in a past life–and coupled with unexplainable flashes from different times that have been haunting her dreams, Lou begins to believe she may be an immortal sent to this place and time for a very important reason, one that only others like her will be able to explain. Relying on her journalistic training and with the help of her friends, Lou sets out to investigate the mystery of her existence and make sense of the jumble of lifetimes calling to her from throughout the ages before her time runs out for good.

Set against the rich historical landscape of Depression-era Los Angeles, The Perishing charts a course through a changing city confronting racism, poverty, and the drumbeat of a coming war for one miraculous woman whose fate is inextricably linked to the city she comes to call home.

Praise for The Perishing:

“Tantalizing, intoxicating, and fantastical . . . Déon creates a haunting and atmospheric tale of immortality and mystery grounded in Black history and tradition.”
—Booklist (starred review)

A supple exploration of life in 1930s Los Angeles as well as a moving meditation on the Black American experience in the 20th century . . . Deón’s prose is beautiful, and the voice animating The Perishing is heartfelt . . . A vibrant, immersive world that’s worth spending time in, learning and remembering.“
—Amal El-Mohtar, The New York Times Book Review

“Pick this one up and I promise . . . you will not be able to put it down”
—Shay Mitchell, Book of the Month

“Vivid and thrilling.”
—Annabel Gutterman, TIME

“The salient beauty of The Perishing is that [it] grapple[s] with what it is like to be inside bodies in extremis, on the edge of risk. Deón attend[s] to the body as a locus of power or its absence: how bodies relate to objects in space, how they feel, how they are given voice—or not—within a place.”
—Anita Fellicelli, Alta

“Is it sci-fi? Is it historical fiction? Mystery? Yes! And it’s unique, wondrous and brilliant.”
—Karla Strand, Ms.

“The Perishing . . . plays like its own genre—lyrical strangeness.”
—Christopher Borelli, Chicago Tribune

“Natashia Deón’s critically acclaimed debut novel, Grace, ushered in a brand-new literary talent whose fans have been waiting five long years to see what she would do next. It’s clear within the first few pages of her new novel, The Perishing, that the wait has been well worth it . . . The Perishing is a downright masterpiece. Welcome to the world of literary stardom, Natashia Deón.”
—Scott Neumyer, Shondaland

“Alongside authors who have portrayed Black Los Angeles with imaginative, complex soul—from Octavia Butler to Venita Blackburn—Deón has subverted the fantastic in the most satisfying of ways”
—Jason Parham, WIRED

“The Perishing is a downright masterpiece. Welcome to the world of literary stardom, Natashia Deón.”
—Shondaland

“Who are we, if not the sum of our experiences? If the body keeps score, how is history written on our flesh? Natashia Deón’s time-bending novel, The Perishing, artfully considers these questions and more . . . Deón’s cultural observations are as sharp and arresting as her use of descriptive language. Physical places, like people, have character, distinct features that speak to the life (or lack thereof) within . . . The Perishing is not a novel that’s largely preoccupied with the physical mechanics of time travel. Instead, time travel is a device used to examine philosophical questions that are embedded in mankind’s search for meaning.”
—Vanessa Willoughby, Literary Hub

“The Perishing is a startling, luminous love letter to Los Angeles and one of the best books of 2021.”
—Adam Morgan, The A.V. Club

“History repeats itself on a personal level in this time-travel novel from Natashia Deón . . . The book is a fascinating and thrilling mystery, but for Deón, it’s also a commentary on the frustrating cycles of injustice that have yet to crack.”
—Rosa Cartagena, Bitch

“An intoxicating blend of sci-fi and historical fiction, The Perishing is a unique perspective on Depression-era life for a Black woman, time traveler or not.”
—Kirby Beaton, BuzzFeed

“Haunting and beautiful.”
—Danielle Broadway, Black Girl Nerds

“From the Epic of Gilgamesh to Marvel’s Eternals, humans have always dreamt of living forever, and speculated on what it would be like to do so. And with so many examples in existence, it’s difficult to present readers with a fresh take on the sempiternal trope, but Natashia Deón’s second novel, The Perishing, does exactly that . . . Deón’s prose is gorgeous, lushly poetic and ‘voice-y,’ with a lot of appeal for fans of Octavia E. Butler and Carol Emshwiller . . . For a novel concerned with portraying timelessness, Deón anchors scenes in minute, present-moment detail. Readers who don’t surrender to the slow pace may get frustrated and skim, which is a pity, considering Deón’s mastery of writing at the sentence level and the slow-burn of themystery she unfolds.”
—Caren Gusoff, Locus Magazine

“The Perishing is full of language that is accomplishing multiple feats at once. One of which is being able to capture the visceral and emotional backdrop of a moment that translates throughout the book . . . As Lou learns more about how to exist in her body, and the many bodies of the lives that follow, she establishes a voice that, like Deón’s, is too powerful to ever be forgotten.”
—Aaron Coats, Chicago Review of Books

“A dark, gritty and slow-burning mystery . . . Deón’s writing is beautiful, with a rat-a-tat quality, like brutal poetry mixed with fierce prose.”
—Carole V. Bell, BookPage

“This isn’t a book. It’s a touchstone. It’s an oracle. It’s a mirror in which you will see your authentic self, reflected on the pages. The Perishing is one part lyrical mystery, one part history lesson you didn’t learn in school, one part time machine. It’s a lush, genre-smashing, philosophical experience of a novel that blew my mind even as it broke my heart.”
—Jamie Ford, New York Times bestselling author of Hotel on the Corner of Bitter and Sweet

“Remarkable, strange, and richly inventive, Natashia Deón’s The Perishing will keep you up all night and haunt you long afterward. Deón’s newest novel is a wonder and a feat.”
—R.O. Kwon, author of The Incendiaries

“I loved traveling through Natashia Deon’s haunting vision of our intertwined past and future; her gaze is both unflinching and deeply compassionate, the truest view of humanity in our everlasting present.”
—Jade Chang, author of The Wangs vs. the World

“For a second time, Deón has proven herself a magnificent, artful storyteller. The Perishing is by turns mysterious, heartbreaking, and inspiring. I love this novel and its courageous protagonist.”
—De’Shawn Charles Winslow, author of In West Mills

“God, The Perishing. Where do I even begin? It’s riveting, my God.”
—CrimeReads

“This marriage of period lit and science fiction will plug the Lovecraft Country sized hole in your heart.”
—Essence

“Reminiscent of Octavia E. Butler, this ambitious new novel by Natashia Deón intermingles the past, present, and future.”
—Buzzfeed

“Reading The Perishing feels like falling through a shimmering kaleidoscope of stories that, when pieced together, tell the past, present, and future of an immortal soul. It makes me excited for the future of literature.”
—Caroline Barbee, Friendly City Books, Columbus, MS

Natashia Deón is the recipient of a PEN Center USA Emerging Voices Fellowship and has been awarded fellowships and residencies at Yale, Bread Loaf, Dickinson House in Belgium and the Virginia Center for Creative Arts. Named one of 2013’s Most Fascinating People by L.A. Weekly, she has an MFA from UC Riverside and is the creator of the popular LA–based reading series Dirty Laundry Lit. Her stories and essays have appeared in The Rumpus, The Rattling Wall, B O D Y, The Feminist Wire, and You: An Anthology of Second Person Essays, among others. She has taught creative writing for Gettysburg College, PEN Center USA, and 826LA. A practicing lawyer, she currently teaches law at Trinity Law School.