String

An Eastern girl comes to the West. She searches herself in others, only to discover they’re all adrift, while she remains trapped in place.

A boy realises the shape of his body is the source of all harm and fear. He practices imagining himself as a pool of liquid to feel safe, but his efforts are in vain.

A little girl’s mother, a North Korean defector, disappears in a border village. In the girls memory, her mother becomes a kite string, or a noose.

From different angels, these fifteen independent stories explore the limits beneath ordinary lives.

‘Tianyu Zhou writes stories that illuminate everyday life and reveal the strangeness of the ordinary world.’
– Gerard Woodward, the author of I’ll Go to Bed at Noon