Strange Beasts of China

BY Yan Ge / TRanslated from chinese BY Jeremy Tiang

Winner, English PEN award

Runner-Up, 2021 Warwick Prize for Women in Translation

‘All we have are stories.’

In the city of Yong’an, an amateur cryptozoologist is commissioned to uncover the stories of its fabled beasts. These creatures — with their greenish stomachs or gills or strange birthmarks — live alongside humans in near-inconspicuousness, some with ancient forbears, others engineered as artificial breeds.

Guided – and often misguided – by her elusive university professor, and his scrappy student sidekick Zhong Liang, our narrator finds herself on a mission to track down each species. And as she blunders from one implausible situation to the next, she comes one step closer to revealing her own inner beast…

Part detective story, part metaphysical enquiry, Strange Beasts addresses existential questions of identity, being, love and morality with whimsy and grace.

PRAISE

“If Yan’s book was simply a selection of surreal vignettes centered around the beasts, a la Jorge Luis Borges or Italo Calvino, it would likely be compelling enough. That isn’t the case here, though. (…) The novel as a whole abounds with moments where vivid imagery coincides with an ever-present sense of danger.” – Tobias Carroll, tor.com

“More than the beasts and their mysteries, Strange Beasts of China stretches out the tender links between parent and child, lovers and friends, who cannot always remain. It expresses the joys and sorrows of being by yourself in a maddening metropolis, and of feeling estranged yet connected to your origins in previously unthinkable ways.” – Jacqueline Leung, Cha

“What appears to be a postmodern series of fantastic fables morphs into something more unexpected, expertly crafted by Yan Ge: an obscure mediation on the wildness of everyday existence, an evocative, bizarre consideration of the fragile boundaries between the self and the world beyond.” – Anahit Behrooz, The Skinny

“I don’t know if it was the unexpected twists and turns in the protagonist’s storyline, or Tiang’s playful-yet-searing English, or the mirror this book holds up to our willingness to be divided and conquered, but I simply could not put this one down.” – Heather Cleary, LitHub

“A thought-provoking read on its own merit, the book takes on added significance given that it is an early work by Yan, whose talent is clear, raw and electrifying.” – Melanie Ho, Post Magazine

“A wonderful and creative read, which testifies to its author’s superb imagination.” – The Modern Novel

“I loved the novel – charged with melancholy surrealism, its preoccupations with being and loneliness are both timeless and all too timely. The translation by Jeremy Tiang is especially brilliant and engaging.” – Sharlene Teo, author of Ponti

MORE INFORMATION

• Publication date: 26 November 2020

• Format: B-format paperback (198mm × 127mm)

• Extent: 320pp

• ISBNs: 978-1-911284-44-4 (print) / 978-1-911284-43-7 (ebook)

• Rights held: World English excl. North America