Ainsworth Gladsly, ambitious young scholar, research fellow and up-and-coming historian is finally ready to make his mark on the world. When his supervisor learns of a rustic inn at the foot of the legendary Mount Vengeance, she send him to be the first to to document the exploits of the bold adventurers who face the…
Taipei Story by R.F. Kuang
“Not once in modern history had Taiwan been allowed to determine its own future. Taiwan had only ever been passed from occupier to occupier—indeed, to Taiwan’s indigenous peoples, the Han Chinese themselves were occupiers. So who was I to say any occupier was better than the last?” College freshman Lily Chen is off to spend…
A Trade of Blood by Robert Jackson Bennett
“It is an inarguable truth, you know,” said Ana, “that most people are absolutely enthralled by dead girls.” In the canton of Sapirdad, two of the Empire’s most powerful families are moments away from going to war with each other, their hundreds of retainers gathered with swords drawn. If blood is spilt, the whole of…
A Plagued Sea by Kim Bo-Young
“The residents of this village became ugly. But there is no correspondence between ugliness and evil. One is no indication of the other.” While waiting for a train to Haewon, an isolated Korean seaside village, bodyguard Mu-young gets a disaster alert on her phone. TVs throughout the station report breaking news of a massive earthquake…
Plant Lady by Minyoung Kang
“And yet—even though she tried to manage each relationship like a plant, with the same sensitivity and understanding—every boyfriend she’d ever gone out with had driven her to the edge.” Tucked away in the corner of a neighborhood in Dosan, South Korea, is the Plant Shop. Shop owner Yoohee has started anew, and her meticulously…
Sweet Nothings: Confessions of a Candy Lover by Sarah Perry
A taxonomy of sweetness, a rhapsody of artificial flavors, and a multi-faceted theory of pleasure, Sweet Nothings is made up of one hundred illustrated micro-essays organized by candy color, from the red of Pop Rocks to the purple Jelly Bonbon in the Whitman’s Sampler. Each entry is a meditation on taste and texture, a memory…
Automatic Noodle by Annalee Newitz
“That was my job. Somebody always has to stay behind. It’s how we protect ourselves, by making sure the enemy doesn’t come back. That’s why I took this name. Staybehind.” While San Francisco rebuilds from the chaos of war, a group of food service bots in an abandoned ghost kitchen take over their own delivery…
The Village of Eight Graves by Seishi Yokomizo
“Nothing is more frightening in this world than ignorance and stupidity.” Nestled deep in the mist-shrouded mountains, The Village of Eight Graves takes its name from a bloody legend: in the Sixteenth Century eight samurai, who had taken refuge there along with a secret treasure, were murdered by the inhabitants, bringing a terrible curse down…
Hunchback by Saou Ichikawa
“Being able to see; being able to hold a book; being able to turn its page; being able to maintain a reading posture; being able to go to a bookshop to buy a book – I loathed the exclusionary machismo of book culture that demanded that its participants meet these five criteria of able-bodiedness. I…
A Long and Speaking Silence by Nghi Vo
“A story can be long or short, happy or sad. All a story needs to do is to tell us something you know that you would like us to know.” On the banks of the Ya-lé River, the town of Luntien gathers to celebrate the start of the rainy season, but the celebration is marred…
