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Bestiary

The blazing debut novel about queer desire and buried secrets

K-Ming Chang

$22.99

Paperback

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English
Vintage
02 November 2021
Three generations of Taiwanese American women are haunted by the myths of their homeland in this blazing debut of one family's queer desires, violent impulses and buried secrets.

Three generations of Taiwanese American women are haunted by the myths of their homeland in this blazing debut of one family's queer desires, violent impulses and buried secrets.

One evening, Mother tells Daughter a story about a tiger spirit who lived in a woman's body. Her name was Hu Gu Po, and she hungered to eat children, especially their toes. Soon afterwards, Daughter awakes with a tiger tail. And more mysterious events follow- Holes in the backyard spit up letters penned by her estranged grandmother; a visiting aunt leaves red on everything she touches; a ghost bird shimmers in an ancient birdcage.

All the while, Daughter is falling for a neighbourhood girl named Ben with mysterious stories of her own. As the two young lovers translate the grandmother's letters, Daughter begins to understand that each woman in her family embodies an old Taiwanese myth, and fears the power of the tiger spirit bristling within her to cause pain. She will have to bring her family's secrets to light in order to derail their destiny.

'What gives me fuel are other books - anything stylish and/or dirty. This year I loved reading K-Ming Chang's Bestiary' Raven Leilani, author of Luster
By:  
Imprint:   Vintage
Country of Publication:   United Kingdom
Dimensions:   Height: 198mm,  Width: 130mm,  Spine: 16mm
Weight:   191g
ISBN:   9781529111965
ISBN 10:   152911196X
Pages:   272
Publication Date:  
Audience:   General/trade ,  ELT Advanced
Format:   Paperback
Publisher's Status:   Active

K-Ming Chang is a Kundiman fellow, a National Book Foundation 5 Under 35 honoree and an O. Henry Prize winner. She is the author of the novel Bestiary, which was longlisted for the Center for Fiction First Novel Prize, and Gods of Want, which won the Lambda Literary Award.

Reviews for Bestiary: The blazing debut novel about queer desire and buried secrets

A powerful novel that will sit inside you for days after reading -- Lucy Knight * Sunday Times * A visceral, magical tale - every sentence is worth savouring. -- Kirsty Logan, author of Things We Say in the Dark Full of magic realism that reaches down your throat, grabs hold of your guts and forces a slow reckoning with what it means to be a foreigner, a native, a mother, a daughter * New York Times * Chang makes a spell rise from every wound, and I'm caught all the way up in this magic... one of the best emerging writers out there. -- Danez Smith K-Ming Chang's prose ravishes, ravages, rampages. This is an absolute lightning strike of a debut. The world grew brighter as I read it. -- Kelly Link, author of GET IN TROUBLE


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