Acclaimed author of CHLORINE, Jade Song, returns with her latest literary exploration of the Gen Z condition, I LOVE YOU DON’T DIE – a lyrical, poignant, and heartfelt novel about the meaning of love, friendship, debt, depression, and death in New York City.
Seeing death as the only inevitable thing in life, Vicky has always found it fascinating. She surrounds herself with it – living above a Chinatown funeral parlour, working at a celebrity start-up for bespoke urns and collecting zhizha (paper creations meant to be burned for the dead).
Despite living in Manhattan and working her dream job, she struggles to find meaning in her life or make connections outside of her best (and only) friend Jen. That changes when a dating app leads her into a throuple with an artist and a labour organiser, who seem to offer exactly the kind of love she needs.
For some time, it’s perfect, but no one understands better than Vicky that all things must end. When her doubts grow over her love life, her friendship and her job, Vicky must decide whether to try and hold on to what she has, or to do what she does best . . . destroy.
‘Achingly, urgently, Jade Song probes at loneliness with some of the most poetic prose I’ve ever had the good luck to read. A dizzying and yearning story of love and loss, I can’t remember the last time a book made me gasp like this one did. Death, sex, student debt – I Love You Don’t Die is unflinching’ – Stuart Pennebaker, author of GHOST FISH
‘Jade Song has written the novel on 21st century loneliness. I Love You, Don’t Die is luminous, tender and an absolute gut punch. A melancholic must read.’ – Lucy Rose, author of THE LAMB
‘I Love You Don’t Die is a poignant meditation on love, loss, loneliness, and the human condition. Song’s ambitious sophomore novel will break your heart completely.’ – Monika Kim, author of THE EYES ARE THE BEST PART
‘I Love You Don’t Die is a gorgeously penned meditation on death, life and love. With tenderness and sharp clarity, it illuminates who and what we truly value and asks what it is we are really living for. Song reminds us that amid the chaos of late-stage capitalism, we all leave behind far more than we allow ourselves to worry about. I relished every page.’ – Warona Jay, author of THE GRAND SCHEME OF THINGS
‘A necessary and moving work about how death can be our greatest teacher for how to live, I Love You Don’t Die is an ode to the power of friendship and community’s ability to be the bridge we build on our way to death . . . This book made me seek out my loved ones and hold them a little closer.’ – Ling Ling Huang, author of NATURAL BEAUTY and IMMACULATE CONCEPTION
‘This book made me laugh, cry, and laugh again. It’s a story about love in all of its forms, a lyrical and witty meditation on what it means to be and to feel alive. Rarely have I seen the nuances of mental illness depicted so accurately; I Love You Don’t Die is a book that will stay with me for a while.’ – Jake Hall, author and journalist
‘Jade Song drops us into Gen Z America, all precarity and social media, then uses breathtaking lyricism to lift us somewhere else entirely. I Love You Don’t Die is unflinching witness to loneliness and connection, to the paper-thin flimsiness of the moment and what endures beyond it. I couldn’t put it down’ – Joanna Chen, writer and translator
‘This book messed me up; and it is messy. The relationships are grotesquely intimate, deep friendships full of selfishness and radiant grief that often knocked the wind out of me. It’s so good. And I hated it’ – Natalie Zina Walschots, author of HENCH
‘With wry wit, Jade Song satirises corporate culture and the commodification of everything, even death. They so wonderfully capture the capitalist malaise – and the rare, wonderful moments in life that burst through it . . . The beating heart of this story is the enduring friendship at its center. More than anything else, I Love You Don’t Die will make you want to call your best friend’ – Katie Yee, author of MAGGIE
‘Beautiful, rich, and captivating. Jade Song invites you into an immersive season of melancholy, where hearts run free and love ambushes as readily as death itself. An experience to be savored’ – Hailey Piper, Bram Stoker Award-winning author of QUEEN OF TEETH
Jade Song is an artist, writer and filmmaker, based in New York. Their debut novel, Chlorine, received wide acclaim on publication in 2023 and was translated into multiple languages. I Love You Don’t Die is their second novel.
