Strange Beasts of China

( Chinese - Yi Shou Zhi ( 异兽志 ) - 2006 )

novel by Yan Ge

translated by Jeremy Tiang

Published: Melville House - hardback - 2021
ISBN: 1612199097 / 9781612199092

Titled Axis - paperback - 2021
ISBN: 1911284444 / 9781911284444

Melville House - e-book - 2021
eISBN: 1612199100 / 9781612199108

Dreamscape Media - audiobook ( CD ) - 2021
ISBN: 1666517127 / 9781666517125

Dreamscape Media - audiobook ( MP3 CD ) - 2021
ISBN: 1666517380 / 9781666517385

Dreamscape Media - audiobook ( digital download ) - 2021
ISBN: 1666517208 / 9781666517200


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

awards
PEN Translates award, autumn 2018
Shortlisted for the 2021 Warwick Prize for Women in Translation