Slice the Water

by P.P. Wong

Born on the lush island nation of Mahana, Fred lives under the tyrannical rule of a book-burning king. Under the king’s rule, Mahanians are controlled by a military dictatorship and threatened with forced starvation, while people with disabilities are exiled. After Fred’s father suddenly disappears, Fred joins an underground movement of dissenters and becomes an unwitting global icon in the fight for Mahanian freedom. When he is recruited and relocated by an organization that appears sympathetic to Fred’s cause, he arrives in a seemingly peaceful foreign nation, where the impact of social media and technology creates a new, stranger struggle.

A dystopian thriller, a speculative fiction, and a coming-of-age story, Wong’s novel thrums with biting bursts of staccato-like prose — a fitting accompaniment to a fascinating exploration of contrasting political systems. As Fred unpeels layers of truth and sees beyond the optics of altruism and the illusion of choice, Slice the Water unpacks the myriad amplifying impacts of technology, addiction, and complacency.

Genres: Canada, Dystopia, Fiction

Paperback

Published September 9, 2025

About the author

PP Wong is a novelist, screenwriter and editor.​​ Her debut novel, The Life of a Banana, was nominated for the Women's Prize for Fiction and featured in numerous outlets, including The Guardian, The Independent, Corriere Della Sera, The Straits Times, Bangkok Post, Vanity Fair, BBC Radio 4 Women's Hour, Radio Television Hong Kong and BBC World.

PP completed an MFA at the University of British Columbia specializing in TV writing and received the celebrated Cordula and Gunter Paetzold Fellowship. She has a degree in Anthropology and Law from The London School of Economics. 

PP has roots in Canada, England and Singapore.

www.ppwongauthor.com

Reviews

[Magdelanye · Rating 4 out of 5]

My ancestors did not speak the same language as me. What did they sound like? Would I be a different person if I knew their words? Dam strange to miss something I never had. p162

P.P.Wong somehow seamlessly maintains her winsome tone throughout this haunting extended parable. Set on a remote tropical island, a village subdued by apathy, indentured to a capricious and unscrupulous king bent on controlling reality for the impoverished population with book burnings and quotas and prisons. By embedding her fantasy kingdom in the modern world, it is easy to detect familiar patterns and even apply some of her insights.

Remember to always look up. People look in front and behind. In their rush they miss the beauty overhead. p10

Shadows may darken our lives but they follow us everywhere. Shadows cannot exist without the light. If we are shadows the light will follow. p114

if we start to become scared about everything then they have won. p171

How can I live if I keep my eyes shut and my mouth closed? p173

4/5 for GR
6/7

[Goose Lane Editions]

“This novel is a knockout!
Wong has the preternatural gift of making the strange familiar and the familiar strange. The world of this novel is a refracted version of our own, with themes of suppression, addiction, celebrity, grief, and love made slightly more magical and slightly more monstrous, but always smart, witty, and relevant.”
—Annabel Lyon Giller Prize finalist and Women's Prize for Fiction longlist, Consent

“You may think you recognize the world of PP Wong's Slice the Water: The oppressive whims of a tyrant dictator; an under-resourced small country whose suffering is hidden from the world stage. But the novel is on every page surprising and keenly imagined in its world-building. The stakes are dire. You care deeply about the fate of this village. You're fearful in the face of the hopeful naivete of the teenage protagonist and his friends. A tough story that also manages to be a feast to read.”
—Nalo Hopkinson Hugo, Nebula, and Philip K. Dick Award finalist, SFWA Damien Knight Grand Master, Brown Girl in the Ring

“A twisty adventure story with endearing, heart-melting characters. Slice the Water is also a biting Swiftian satire that critiques both book-burning despots and techno-progressive elites. PP Wong sweeps her readers up in a fictional universe that feels uniquely alive and wondrously imagined—one that brilliantly reveals our own world.”
—Kevin Chong Giller Prize finalist and juror, The Double Life of Benson Yu

[Meghan · Rating 3 out of 5]

Fred lives in Mahana under a king who wants to burn all the books. When his Pa disappears, he knows he must go out and look for him. In doing so, he learns of this underground movement who are fighting for Mahanian freedom. He is recruited into this organization and as time passes he continues to reveal the different layers of the institution. The reader wanted to like this more than they did. This started off really promising with such an interesting premise of two worlds divided by technology, the ones who have too much of it and the ones who don’t have enough. The set-up of the plot and the characters felt like this was going to be intriguing and different, but as this continued, this kinda started to fall apart. There were a lot of themes that the author wanted to throw at this, but there wasn’t enough to fully flesh them out so it felt like reading half-baked ideas versus a good theme with a clear plot. Even the characters lost a bit of their lustre after the first few chapters. They started to feel dull and a bit surface level. We wanted to like and understand them but it was hard when it felt like we weren’t getting anything. There were moments we felt them, like with Fred and his Pa, but in other aspects we just didn’t connect with them. This novel was fast-paced and the short chapters left the reader flipping through the book so they read it quickly, but there were times when it was hard to follow and we just wanted more structure and clarity. Otherwise, the writing in this was really well done. In the end, this had a compelling plot, it just needed to be more detailed with stronger characters.

[Alex Jonker · Rating 4 out of 5]

My last of the CBC Canada Reads 2026 Longlist!

Overall, I really enjoyed reading this one. The plot was fresh and interesting, and the characters were likable and made me feel for them. I did really get caught up on the quirky writing style with repetitions of nonsensical words, at least at first, and I feel like a lot of the metaphors went over my head. But even so, I was able to get invested and appreciate the story.

A great year for Canada Reads! Looking forward to the debates next week!

[Corey · Rating 4 out of 5]

A fractured dystopia only seconds away from, well, the dystopia we’re currently in. Starting with a bewildering book cull, we follow Fred, a teenaged boy of the island nation of Mahana, living under the thumb of a fascist regime. When his father disappears, Fred is swept up in an underground political movement, becoming a cog in a convoluted political machine he can barely comprehend. Part coming-of-age tale, part satirical fable, part prescient warning; Wong expertly manifests a frighteningly familiar world of societal oppression, third-world servitude, and flexible morality.

[Dan Wachal · Rating 2 out of 5]

Canada Reads 2026 Longlist Book!

Slice the Water gestures at big ideas about identity, migration, memory, and grief, but never gives those ideas a narrative strong enough to carry them. The themes feel scattered, and the plot never really coalesces into something moving or compelling. Fragmentation can be powerful; here it mostly feels like diffusion. Thoughtful in intent, but ultimately thin and forgettable.

Final Canada Reads 2026 Ranking!

1. Searching for Terry Punchout
2. Restaurant Kid
3. It's Different this Time
4. Julie Chan is Dead
5. The Hunger We Pass Down
6. Foe
7. Crossroads
8. The Cure for Drowning
9. Oxford Soju Club
10. Never Been Better
11. Everything is Fine Here
12. Slice the Water
13. A Minor Chorus
14. Celestina's House
15. Heated rivalry

[Enid Wray · Rating 2 out of 5]

I was with this - until I wasn’t… and admittedly I should have bailed on it… though I do admit that I sped-read Part 3, titled “Beyond.” I just kept thinking there must be something more that I’m missing and there will be a moment where reading this all becomes worthwhile. Nope. That moment never arrived.

Cut to the chase: This reads as juvenile; It is a hot mess that really doesn’t know what it wants to be…. Allegorical tale, cautionary warning, satire, critique of contemporary capitalism, who knows…; and, the writing is very uneven… all of the serious critiquing is piled on in the last third of the book.

Yes there is some interesting messaging… but most of that is told to me. The author doesn’t trust enough to just let me figure things out for myself.

This should have been a title that ticked all my boxes and made my cheeks hurt. It fell way short of the mark.

[Jayson Campeau · Rating 5 out of 5]

On a certain level this dystopia read like the Six O'Clock news. I guess the intended warnings given by this type of text are to help us avoid the negative outcome of the path we are on. In our current world situation dystopia is coming critically close to reality and that is scary. I like how the society and it's inhabitants are depicted as well as the specialized words that almost needed their own decoder kit. I am not generally a fan of sci-fi dystopic novels but maybe I am just a late bloomer cause I loved this book. Sad to see it didn't get picked by any of the Canada Reads Champions.

[Anastasis · Rating 5 out of 5]

I was drawn in from the first page, as PP Wong seduces me into this far away land that is unfamiliar and yet familiar at the same time as seen through the eyes of Fred a teen who gets thrown into circumstances that seem way over his head. I cheered for him, was devastated for him. To put it simply it is a David and Goliath story, but told in such a way that I dare your heart not to grow a few sizes larger after you read it.

[Laura Welsh · Rating 4 out of 5]

Solid book. A dystopian read that seems to hit a bit too close to home. Power can be a really dangerous thing when the wrong people have it.

This was a story of resilience, a story of resistance. People trying to find a better life. Some parts were hard to read, but I'm glad I read it. The ending did bring me hope.

This was a part of the 2026 CBC Reads Long list. I'm happy that it was, I don't know if I'd have chosen this book myself.

[Kristin Shoemaker · Rating 5 out of 5]

I really enjoyed P.P. Wong's first book and was thrilled to enjoy another very meaningful work of art. She avoids traditional literary convention and draws on her deep cross-cultural insights to weave a great story. A great reminder that there is no magic institutional fix on the right or left of our present political conundrum but there is hope.

[Lauren Wallace · Rating 4 out of 5]

"This was what they wanted. This dam funny feeling that left every part of my body light." (182)

I thought this book had a great amount of action and had a great plot. I did find it a bit slow at times. I enjoyed the ending.

This book was a quick read; a I read it in a day!

I would recommend this book to anyone into dramas.

[Kaylie Voutier · Rating 4 out of 5]

This was different from other dystopian novels that I have read but was very good. I found it took a bit more concentration because of the language used and the descriptions of technology but it was interesting because it made me feel confused just like Fred.

[Lorna · Rating 3 out of 5]

I read this book as part of Canada Reads 2026. Upon reading the preview it was in my top 5, however when I read the book it dropped drastically. I never got a sense of closure from the ending, too many loose ends. Also if an author is going to make up a language a glossary would be appreciated.

[theliterateleprechaun · Rating 4 out of 5]

𝐋𝐨𝐧𝐠𝐥𝐢𝐬𝐭𝐞𝐝 𝐟𝐨𝐫 𝐂𝐚𝐧𝐚𝐝𝐚 𝐑𝐞𝐚𝐝𝐬 𝟐𝟎𝟐𝟔
=========================
Vancouver author

Still thinking about this one. It was such a different dystopian novel. I loved reading about Fred's world and liked the insertions of his language. Of the few longlisted novels I've read so far, I believe this one will be shortlisted.

[Janalynn · Rating 3 out of 5]

One from the Canada Reads longlist that I chose because it has dystopian elements. Liked it, didn't love it. What I did find interesting was how the author sort of created two separate worlds--one without technology versus one that had too much.

[Jenn · Rating 5 out of 5]

This was my vibe, I really enjoyed the way this story was told; the dystopian but so familiar combining in a really interesting way. Cool world building.

[Anna Gabrielle · Rating 4 out of 5]

So weird and wild - I was constantly being surprised by this. I can see people being confused, especially once the second half hits - but the characters are so beautiful and interesting and the language is so unique. The plot was definitely confusing at parts but the characters and relationships were great.