Ida

Ida

A novel about life choices and how those decisions can make or unmake someone.

Ida is a few months out of high school and doesn't know what to do with her life. This is exacerbated by the fact that she has the ability to live out the alternatives to the choices she makes, by travelling between parallel universes.

This has never really been a problem until one day when she sees a shadowy doppelganger of herself on the train.

She might've been able to convince herself that she was seeing things, if she didn't see another doppelganger, and another ... and another. Each time the doppelgangers are more opaque, numerous and eventually, Ida begins to realise that she's not always in control of her ability. The doppelgangers have realised that they can use her ability now, and she is pushed out of the universe she is occupying again and again.

Ida begins to get further from her 'home" universe, and in these colder places she finds her father indifferent, her partner absent, her bedroom filled with things she doesn't recognise.

She begins to understand that these doppelgangers are not the enemy but rather versions of herself that she has created, and it is then that she is able to find her way home.

Ida is an intelligent, diverse and entertaining novel that explores love, loss and longing, and speaks to the condition of an array of overwhelming, and often illusory choices.

Alison Evans writes about people who don't know what they want, relationships and Melbourne. They are co-editor of Concrete Queers, a maker of zines and a lover of bad movies. Their work has been published in various Australian and international magazines, in lit journals and zines. Alison tweets at @_budgie. Their website is: alisonwritesthings.com.

Ida
Echo
Author: Alison Evans
RRP: $19.99