"Swimming with Dead Stars by Vi Khi Nao is a novel that follows adjunct literature instructor Maldon on a cross-country journey to undergo a medical procedure to repair a heart condition. The novel is a hallucinatory meditation on the stars and planets, the precariousness of human existence, the cruel inequities of labor and healthcare, chickens and ice cream, and the grace that comes from enduring the physical and psychic pain wrought by pernicious social forces that enslave us all"--"A hypnotic sojourn of planetary proportions through the terrestrial contingencies of bodies, health, poverty, and salvation Maldon is an adjunct literature instructor at a prestigious East Coast university, with a deteriorating heart condition, no insurance. She finds herself caught between the demands of her job and the needs of her body causing an economic strain that leaves its mark in the form of a deep suicidality. But Maldon, who has pledged to safeguard her mother ever since their arrival in the US on a refugee ship from post-war Vietnam, has vowed to not commit suicide for as long as her mother is living. Eventually, her heart worsening rapidly, she ventures cross-country to a place called Cloud for the operation that may save her life. In Cloud, Maldon is joined by old friend planet Neptune, who is hermaphroditic, peculiar, and has taken it upon himself to accompany Maldon through the operation. Swimming with Dead Stars is a hallucinatory meditation on the stars and planets, the precariousness of our existence, the cruel inequities of labor and healthcare, chickens and ice cream, and the grace that comes from enduring the physical and psychic pain wrought by pernicious social forces that enslave us all. Through Maldon, the narrative depicts the contours of financial exploitation in higher education, perilous labor, and the forms of physical and psychic pain this unleashes.

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