Elsewhere: 'Wonderful writing' Sarah Hall

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He turned around to the table next to us and shouted, “Small Bamboo! Can you talk some sense into this girl★” Having already made a name for herself in Chinese, the prodigiously talented Yan Ge now reveals an equally compelling voice in English. The denizens of Elsewhere are misfits and dropouts, perpetually at odds with their surroundings in a world that refuses to accommodate them. A highly accomplished collection that is equal parts shimmering wit and startling emotional depth.” —Jeremy Tiang, author of State of Emergency Elsewhere” is not simply a novel about a specific time and place; it transcends these boundaries to explore universal themes of family, love, and the search for meaning. Ge’s prose is both lyrical and raw, evoking a wide range of emotions as readers journey alongside her characters. The narrative structure, presented through interconnected vignettes, allows for a deeper introspection into the complexities of human existence. 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."

Publishing Director Angus Cargill has bought UK & Commonwealth rights to a collection of short stories and a novel by Yan Ge from Matt Turner at RCW in an exclusive submission. North American rights were then pre-empted by Rebekah Jett at Scribner. A short story collection can be a great vehicle for showcasing different styles and forms, and so it is with Yan Ge’s Elsewhere, the English-language debut from an award-winning Chinese writer whose work has been published in a number of Irish literary journals and anthologies. Born in Sichuan, Ge lived in Ireland for a number of years but is currently based in Norwich, where she completed an MFA at the University of East Anglia and was the recipient of the UEA International Award 2018/2019. Other accolades to date include the Mao Dun Literature Prize and being named by People’s Literature magazine as one of 20 future literature masters in China.

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We walked into Vertical’s tent and removed our clothes. He touched me for a short while before entering. We hugged and moved towards and away from each other repeatedly. I felt cold the whole time because I was lying on the ground. He cried when he came. A recommended read if you are into something that is stimulating, provocative, intriguing and “meaty” (no pun intended, but you would understand especially if you would have read the last story in this compilation 😅). In Ireland her son was born and then they moved to Norwich in 2018, where Ge still lives. I ask her about the story Shooting an Elephant, where a Chinese woman, Shanshan, gets annoyed by Dubliners shouting “ni hao” (Chinese for “hello”) at her in the street, or asking her to read their Chinese tattoos. Did these things happen to Ge in Ireland? Yan Ge commented: ‘I have been writing in Chinese for eighteen years, and it took me a long time searching to find my voice in a new literary language. The stories in Elsewhere include a polyphony of voices, anti-dualistic propositions and characters whose identities are constantly in flux – this sense of perpetual displacement is what I want to continue to explore and celebrate in my fiction. I heard earlier on TV,” I said, “that the number of casualties is now sixty-two thousand, three hundred and fifty-seven.”

Most of her characters are always observing, passively soaking in people’s carelessness around them like a sponge. An outsider in the elsewhere, speaking a language that inevitably flattens them, always an object of desire, spectacle, or otherness. Let me, first and foremost, gather my thoughts because it has been so long since I read an eclectic and multifaceted pieces of writing. Not long,” Old Stone said. “But we might surprise ourselves—this morning, a search team dug out a man who’d been buried for more than seventy-two hours, still alive.” I set out trying to write a story collection that was connected or has a strong theme – and I just gave up!” Her agent suggested she follow her own path instead. “I really allowed myself to try out different voices. But I feel the reason I was trying them out was that these voices were in me already. I see this collection, from a personal point of view, like a journey of me finding out what kind of writer I want to be in English.”When Pigeon’s mother reflects on the question, she is in bed dying, one month remaining before her sojourn on this planet ends. It gains more poignancy from that. The time when social fictions no longer hold meaning. We are reduced to humans in bodies of skin and bone and not some compartment in which our physical features or language place us. He smiled shyly. “Vertical and Chilly are having sex in my tent. Shall we go to Vertical’s tent and have sex as well★” Yan Ge was born Dai Yuexing in 1984 in Sichuan, China. She began publishing in 1994. She completed a PhD in comparative literature at Sichuan University and is the Chair of the China Young Writers Association. Her writing uses a lot of Sichuanese, rather than Standard Chinese (Mandarin). People’s Literature (Renmin Wenxue 人民文学) magazine recently chose her–in a list reminiscent of The New Yorker’s ‘20 under 40’ – as one of China’s twenty future literary masters. In 2012 she was chosen as Best New Writer by the prestigious Chinese Literature Media Prize (华语文学传媒大奖 最佳新人奖). As a result of this cosmopolitanism, the stories in Elsewhere are jangly and eclectic, set in wildly different time periods and filled with dissonances. That shit-and-literature theme recurs, in various incarnations, throughout. Elsewhere’s characters seem constantly in abdominal discomfort; someone vomits in five of the nine stories. The act of eating meat takes on a horrifying resonance, in part because characters in two separate stories are presented with dishes made from human flesh.

Ignore these old drunks,” Small Bamboo said apologetically. “You go sit with Vertical.” He pointed me to a table on the side, at which a young woman and two men in their twenties sat. They waved at me gleefully. We walked to the Little House. The buses hadn’t been running since the twelfth and there were no taxis. Small Bamboo had smoked three cigarettes by the time he finally remembered to offer me one. I told him I didn’t smoke.For the first time in many years, I felt a tingling of contentment. I ate meat and drank water. I had a bed to sleep in. Before long, I would go to my bed and have a dream about butterflies, and, just like Zhuangzi, I would not be able to tell if it was me who dreamed about the butterflies or a butterfly who dreamed about me.

In fact comedy goes deeper than that for Ge. “I really aspired to be a stand-up [comedian]! I did an event with [the comedian] Maeve Higgins in Cork last year and I said I really want to be a stand-up, and she was like, ‘Why?’ Elsewhere” by Yan Ge is a collection of stories that captivates readers with its jangly and eclectic narratives. The book explores the relationship between language and understanding, showcasing the power of words to evoke emotions and experiences beyond comprehension. With its cosmopolitan settings and visceral quality, “Elsewhere” pushes the boundaries of storytelling and establishes Yan Ge as a talented and versatile writer. Yan Ge was born Dai Yuexing in 1984 in Sichuan, China. She began publishing in 1994. She completed a PhD in comparative literature at Sichuan University and is the Chair of the China Young Writers Association. Her writing uses a lot of Sichuanese, rather than Standard Chinese (Mandarin).[1] People’s Literature (Renmin Wenxue 人民文学) magazine recently chose her – in a list reminiscent of The New Yorker's ‘20 under 40’ – as one of China's twenty future literary masters. In 2012 she was chosen as Best New Writer by the prestigious Chinese Literature Media Prize (华语文学传媒大奖 最佳新人奖). Yan Ge (Chinese: 颜歌; born 1984) is the pen name of Chinese writer Dai Yuexing (戴月行).When Travelling in the Summer’ was the first of the stories I really liked. It had a good premise and an interesting cast of characters that all related to each other in interesting ways. Not only this, but it came to a satisfying but not overwrought conclusion. It was definitely more of a traditional story structurally than the others, and I think this is also why it stood out to me. It knew what it wanted to do, then executed it well. My favourite of the collection was definitely the final story, ‘Hai’. Really, for the same reasons as for above, but doubly so. Everything ‘When Travelling in the Summer’ did well, ‘Hai’ did even better, and spent more time doing it. The writing here was also the best of among all the stories (and it had been very good throughout), with some fantastic dialogue especially. I’ll be honest, if Yan Ge hadn’t put out this as a collection of short stories, but had instead put this out as a novella alone, I would have been just as happy. Moving between the contemporary and the historical, the frighteningly dystopian to the hyper-real, Yan Ge’s English-language debut is a mastery of the short story form. A prolific writer in her native China, Ge has won the prestigious Mao Dun Literature Prize and was named by People’s Literature magazine as one of 20 future literature masters in China. In twenty years, Yan Ge has authored thirteen books written in Chinese, working across an impressive range of genres and subjects. Now, Yan Ge transposes her dynamic storytelling onto another linguistic landscape. The result is a collection humming with her trademark wit and style—and with the electricity of a seasoned artist flexing her virtuosity with a new medium.