People Collide
By Isle McElroy
2023
First Published
3.56
Average Rating
264
Number of Pages
From the acclaimed author of The Atmospherians —“a Fight Club for the Millennial Generation” (Mat Johnson)—a gender-bending, body-switching novel that explores marriage, identity, and sex, and raises profound questions about the nature of true partnership. When Eli leaves the cramped Bulgarian apartment he shares with Elizabeth, his more organized and successful wife, he discovers that he now inhabits her body. Not only have he and his wife traded bodies but Elizabeth, living as Eli, has disappeared without a trace. What follows is Eli’s search across Europe to America for his missing wife—and a roving, no-holds-barred exploration of gender and embodied experience. As Eli comes closer to finding Elizabeth—while learning to exist in her body—he begins to wonder what effect this metamorphosis will have on their relationship and how long he can maintain the illusion of living as someone he isn’t. Will their new marriage wither completely in each other's bodies? Or is this transformation the very thing Eli and Elizabeth need for their marriage to thrive? A rich, rewarding exploration of ambition and sacrifice, desire and loss, People Collide is a portrait of shared lives that shines a refreshing light on everything we thought we knew about love, sexuality, and the truth of who we are.
Avg Rating
3.56
Number of Ratings
2,182
5 STARS
18%
4 STARS
35%
3 STARS
34%
2 STARS
11%
1 STARS
2%
goodreads
Author
Isle McElroy
Author · 4 books
Isle McElroy is a non-binary writer based in Brooklyn. Their debut novel, The Atmospherians, was published by Atria and was named a NY Times Editors' Choice. Their second novel, People Collide, is forthcoming from HarperVia. Other writing appears in The New York Times, The New York Times Magazine, The Guardian, The Cut, Vulture, GQ, Vogue, The Atlantic, Tin House, and elsewhere. Isle was named one of The Strand's 30 Writers to Watch. They have received fellowships from The Bread Loaf Writers' Conference, The Tin House Summer Workshop, The Sewanee Writers Conference, The Inprint Foundation, The Elizabeth George Foundation, and The National Parks Service.
