Hunter - by Shuang Xuetao (Paperback)

Book Synopsis

A provincial ambulance drives through the night in search of a hospital, a fifth-rate actor goes method as a hitman on a sweltering rooftop, a legendary knife fighter is found working on the factory floor of a northern village.

Hunter's stories of deceptive, brutal realism play with myth and history, offering a vision of ordinary life in China with a magic realist turn.

Filled with dark humor and written with a tinge of noir, these fictions grapple with the realities of contemporary China, and show why Shuang Xuetao is the most highly-celebrated young writer working in the country today.

Granta Magazine Editions is a paperback original series of exceptional literary voices published by Granta magazine.

Review Quotes

"Shuang Xuetao offers an unsparing portrait of life in China's industrial north-east. The Dongbei renaissance draws attention to places left behind by the nation's rise but also points to demand for honest, nuanced accounts of the real China." - The Economist

"In sparse, vernacular prose, Shuang uses fabulist noir to evoke the pace of social change . . . Shuang's multi-voiced narratives both challenge and confirm that maxim, conveying the contested legacies of recent Chinese history." - The New Yorker

"One of China's most celebrated young authors . . . he has been hailed for bringing attention to a time and people that China's public imagination had long written off." - New York Times

About the Author

Jeremy Tiang is a novelist, playwright and literary translator. He has translated over thirty books from across the Chinese-speaking world, including novels by Yeng Pway Ngon, Yan Ge, Lo Yi-Chin, Liu Xinwu and Zhang Yueran. Most recently, his translation of Zou Jingzhi's Ninth Building was longlisted for the International Booker Prize 2023. He has been a translator-in-residence at Princeton University and the University of Iowa, and chaired the jury for the National Book Award in Translated Literature.