Cocoon

Cocoon follows two friends born in the 1980s who seek to understand the experiences of their parents and grandparents during one of the most turbulent periods in recent Chinese history. Turned amateur detectives, they slowly begin to understand the terrible fate of their grandfathers and uncover the crime that binds their families

An upmarket literary mystery, Cocoon delves into the complexity of a crime set during the Cultural Revolution, in one of contemporary China's most chaotic years

The author Zhang Yueran is one of China's most accomplished young female writers. A literary celebrity since her early twenties, she is a prominent figure in the "post-80" (i.e. born after 1980) generation, known for both her novels and her editorship of the journal Newriting

Zhang was named by Unitasmagazine as one of the top 20 Sinophone writers under 40, featured here in Asymptote https://www.asymptotejournal.com/special-feature/a-sinophone-20-under-40-part-iviv/

She is considered the voice of the post-eighties generation of Chinese youth, and her writing is reflective of her generation's struggle to come to terms with their parents experience during the Cultural Revolution. In Germany, a whole wave of literature was published about the post WWII generation trying to understand their parents' role in the holocaust a similar movement is happening in China, but has not made its way into any English translations

In 2011, the author participated in the International Writing Program Fall Residency at the University of Iowa in Iowa City, IA

Jeremy Tiang, who will join the School of the Arts Faculty as an adjunct professor in Fall 2021, has won a PEN Translates award from English PEN for his translation from the Chinese of Cocoon (World Editions) by Zhang Yueran

Cocoon was published in 2016 and has sold over 150,000 copies in China to date

The French edition of the book, re-titled as Le clou, was published by Editions Zulma in France and has received a lot of positive reviews. The novel won the Best Asian Novel of the Prix Transfuge 2019

Territories sold: o China: People's Literature o Taiwan: Ink o South Korea: Mirae N o France: Editions Zulma o Russia: Phantom Press o Netherlands: Prometheus

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