Finalist, best new fiction, International Book Awards
Finalist, literary fiction, Foreword INDIES Book of the Year Award
Finalist, best published novel, Eyelands Book Award
Finalist, general fiction, American Book Fest’s Best Book Award
Finalist, Permafrost Book Prize
Winner, cover design by Heather Kettenis, Independent Publisher Book Award
Winner, cover design, Next Generation Indies Book Award
Semifinalist, Conium Review Book Prize
Shortlisted, Santa Fe Writers’ Project Literary Award
Honorable Mention, Leapfrog Press Fiction Competition
Nominee, PEN Open Book Award
“As far as I know, you can only die once…” But when Aetna Simmons disappears from her lonely Bermuda cottage, she leaves behind not one but ten suicide notes. Ten different suicide notes. And no other trace to speak of, not even a corpse, as if she’d never existed.
Drafts of a Suicide Note is the darkly enigmatic love letter of Kenji Okada-Caines, a petty criminal who once exposited on English literary classics and now, marooned on his native isle, nurtures an obsession with Aetna’s writing. His murky images of a woman with ten voices and no face launch him into waking nightmares, driving him to confront his lifetime’s worth of failures as a scholar, lover, and opiate addict. His wild conspiracy theories of Aetna as an impostor ten times over lead him to the doorstep of the Japanese mother who turned her back on him, and to the horrifying discovery that the great love of his life isn’t who she seems to be. Kenji’s is a story of dire misunderstandings and the truths we hide even from the ones we love.
Excerpt
Praise for Drafts of a Suicide Note
Ten unique suicide notes, no dead body, and a washed-up academic who thinks literary scholarship can solve this mystery. Rife with innovative textual experiments, touches of humor, and dramatic intrigue, Mandy-Suzanne Wong’s Drafts of a Suicide Note is a challenging and satisfying read. In a book full of mistrust and backstabs, truth only matters if self-gain comes with it, and this gloriously dark book radiates with each character’s messed-up version of light. Wong’s debut novel twists conventions and wrings something new.
— James R. Gapinski, author of Edge of the Known Bus Line
The mystery held me captive […and] the language enchanted me [in] this wildly beautiful, completely unpredictable story.
— Jan Alexander, author of Ms. Ming’s Guide to Civilization, via Amazon
Beautifully written … a gorgeous, moody world that is rich with vibrant Caribbean language, voice, and landscapes.
— Heather Siegel, author of The King and the Quirky, via Amazon
What a tale—unusually set in Bermuda and unusually entirely expressed in Bermudian. It’s a version of English utterly its own, so much so that it comes close to being a character in its own right. The novel is charming and gripping and horrifying. Funny and sad and frivolous and dark. A story, you begin by thinking, of Kenji Okada-Caines, the drug dealer with a conscience who falls over the mystery of the ten drafts of a suicide note. But then the story draws in, and the centre shifts from Kenji, whose Japanese mother’s calm and frosty control are the bane of his life, to include his bigamous and wildly religious girlfriend, whose feckless charm hides a mighty Techie brain. But no more, or it will be too much. You will have to discover this Bermudian world for yourself. Dive into the sun and its shadows, the seas and the slang. What a feat!
— J.L. Crozier, author of What Empty Things Are These
An alluring mystery that is wholly impressive in how it outmaneuvers the reader at every turn. Wong deliciously navigates through an elaborate design of deception and intrigue. Every answer brings with it more questions; every suicide note, more turmoil inflicted on Kenji’s personal life. The characters have been drawn with such beautifully visceral flaws that their arrogant certainty and suffocating self-doubt become our own. Wong’s amusing style of prose keeps Kenji’s devastating journey enlivened—yet haunting. The result is a well-crafted novel that succeeds in landing every emotional punch. A stellar debut from a promising new author.
— Rich Andrew, staff writer, LAArtsOnline
Our editors selected Drafts of a Suicide Note for its multidimensional characters and finely crafted prose. In addition, whilst Caribbean literature is winning tremendous, much-deserved acclaim, Bermuda is relatively underrepresented in literary markets. We’re also keenly aware that depression, addiction, and voluntary death are rampant traumas under urgent, worldwide discussion. Drafts of a Suicide Note poses a host of questions about these global problems while staying true to its Bermudian roots; taking readers on an island-wide romp—from St. George’s to Dockyard and back—in a mystery full of intrigue, backstabbing, and dark humor. It’s a literary phenomenon you don’t want to miss.
— Jaynie Royal, Editor-in-Chief, Regal House, via Bernews
Cover
Design by Bermuda’s own Dr. Heather Kettenis, who also developed the book’s interior illustrations.
Winner of the Independent Publisher Award and Next Generation Indie Book Award for cover design.
An unforgettably unconventional and eye-catching design. The crumpled page of typewritten words makes you itch to grab the paper and smooth it out to read it – and since you can’t, you’ll be itching to read the book instead. Outstanding.
— Next Generation Indie Book Awards Judges
Drafts of a Suicide Note
A Novel
ISBN 9781947548824, Regal House Publishing, 11 October 2019