Tordotcom Publishing is thrilled to announce that Christie Yant has acquired the novella The Two Doctors Górski by Isaac Fellman. The deal for World English rights was brokered by Kate McKean of the Howard Morhaim Literary Agency.
Annae, a brilliant graduate student in psychiatric magic and survivor of academic abuse, can’t stop reading people’s minds. This is how she protects herself, by using her abilities to give her colleagues what they each want out of their relationship with her.
When Annae moves to the UK to rebuild her life and finds herself studying under the infamous, misanthropic magician Marec Górski, she sees inside his head a dangerous path to her redemption. Annae now faces two choices—follow in Dr. Górski’s lead, or break free of a lifetime of conditioning to follow her own path.
In the words of the author Isaac:
The Two Doctors Górski is a story about being looked at as a young woman and being subject to everyone’s fantasies and expectations. For Annae, powerful as she is, it’s a tremendous struggle to get on with her work in spite of the judging, hungry gaze that surrounds her and makes her question her most basic understanding of herself. There’s hope in the book for an escape from all this, but it comes at a price she shouldn’t have to pay.
I wrote this book before I came out as a trans man, and my own experiences of being seen this way—as someone not a woman, but presenting as one—heighten Górski‘s sense of paranoia and dread. At the same time, I’ve also tried to convey Annae’s passion for her work, her desire to contribute something heady and valuable to the world, and the beauty she finds in her surroundings when she’s left alone to feel it. I’m beyond glad that Tordotcom has given me this chance to tell the story of a world-weary, kind, struggling intellectual trying to rebuild her life, despite all the telepathic horrors, unnatural disasters, deeply bad graduate supervisors, and eager eyes that I’ve seen fit to put in her way.
In the words of Christie Yant:
Isaac Fellman’s The Two Doctors Górski is an atmospheric and darkly dazzling exploration of reclaiming personal power in the aftermath of abuse. His rich, lyrical prose—reminiscent of Susanna Clarke at her best—pulled me in immediately and wouldn’t let me go. Isaac brings compassion and depth to his characters, and a true sense of wonder to the world he’s created. I look forward to Tordotcom readers meeting Annae and journeying with her as she discovers herself and her place in the world and the power within herself.
Isaac Fellman is the author of Dead Collections, forthcoming in 2022 from Penguin Books, as well as The Breath of the Sun (published under his pre-transition first name, Rachel Fellman), which won the 2018 Lambda Literary Award for queer science fiction, fantasy, and horror. He is an archivist at the GLBT Historical Society in San Francisco.
The Two Doctors Górski will be available from Tordotcom Publishing in 2022.
