IMMACULATE CONCEPTION
Art and identity are at the heart of Ling Ling Huang’s second novel, a strange tale of two women whose obsessive friendship leads to both fame and ruin.
Enka is an impoverished student at a prestigious art school in a post-AI future. There, she meets Mathilde, a troubled but prodigious talent. The two become friends, despite Enka’s jealousy. Several years later, Mathilde is widely celebrated, while Enka has married into wealth, but achieved little artistically. Her billionaire husband’s experimental “SCAFFOLD” technology, however, may be the answer to both Mathilde’s emotional problems and Enka’s artistic woes.