Real Sugar is Hard to Find

“Kern is a master at creating worlds that feel vast and lived-in with very few words, as well as balancing pathos with wry humor. The result is a searing, urgent, but still achingly tender work that will wow any reader of speculative fiction.” —Publishers Weekly, starred review
“There’s a carefully curated urgency here inspired by current world events without getting heavy-handed or preachy. The main ingredient for this collection isn’t fear, but heart. The focus of these stories doesn’t feel like trying to capitalize off anxieties about the future, but rather expressing the humanity of people and how they come together to help or support each other, even when everything seems hopeless.” —Milo Todd, Foglifter Journal
“Each story’s world is quickly drawn and made complex by the characters and the problems they face. When it comes to world-ending scenarios, the breadth of ideas on display here is incredible.” —Melody Bowles, British Fantasy Society
“Through every precise, pared-back paragraph, every carefully crafted sentence, there runs a thread of continuous urgency, as Kern builds story on top of story into a thematically unified whole. You might not feel exactly hopeful about the world after diving into Sim Kern’s luminous imagination, but I can promise you’ll feel something –which, as these stories remind us, is surely the whole point of being alive.” —Katie McIvor, Etherea Magazine
“Kern excels at creating haunting worlds and memorable characters throughout Real Sugar Is Hard to Find.” —Tina S. Zhu, Strange Horizons

Sim Kern is the New York Times bestselling author of Genocide Bad: Notes on Palestine, Jewish History, and Collective Liberation and The Free People’s Village, a USA Today bestseller and Indie Next Pick. Their debut horror novella, Depart, Depart!, was selected for the Honor List for the 2020 Otherwise Award. As a journalist, book influencer, and anti-Zionist Jewish activist, Kern has used their social media platform to share educational content about politics and power and has raised more than half a million dollars in direct aid for families in Gaza since 2023.

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