{"product_id":"land-of-big-numbers-stories-isbn-9780358272557","title":"Land Of Big Numbers: Stories","description":"\u003cp\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eA Best Book of the Year: Barack Obama · NPR · \u003cem\u003eThe Washington Post\u003c\/em\u003e · \u003cem\u003eThe Philadelphia Inquirer\u003c\/em\u003e · \u003cem\u003eEsquire \u003c\/em\u003e· \u003cem\u003eKirkus Reviews\u003c\/em\u003e · Chicago Public Library · \u003cem\u003eElectric Literature\u003c\/em\u003e \u003c\/strong\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eMalala Yousafzai’s Fearless Book Club Pick for Literati \u003c\/strong\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e\u003cstrong\u003e \"Dazzling...Riveting.\" \u003c\/strong\u003e—\u003cstrong\u003e\u003cem\u003eNew York Times Book Review\u003c\/em\u003e\u003c\/strong\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e\u003cstrong\u003e“Gripping and illuminating . . . At the heart of Te-Ping Chen’s remarkable debut lies a question all too relevant in 21st Century America: What is freedom?”\u003c\/strong\u003e —\u003cstrong\u003eJennifer Egan\u003c\/strong\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e\u003cstrong\u003e “Immensely rewarding, from the first sentence to the last . . . An exceptional collection.” —Charles Yu\u003c\/strong\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eA “stirring and brilliant” debut story collection, offering vivid portrayals of the men and women of modern China and its diaspora, “both love letter and sharp social criticism,” from a phenomenal new literary talent bringing great “insight from her years as a reporter with the \u003cem\u003eWall Street Journal” \u003c\/em\u003e(\u003cem\u003eElle\u003c\/em\u003e).\u003c\/strong\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eGripping and compassionate, \u003cem\u003eLand of Big Numbers\u003c\/em\u003e traces the journeys of the diverse and legion Chinese people, their history, their government, and how all of that has tumbled—messily, violently, but still beautifully—into the present.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eCutting between clear-eyed realism and tongue-in-cheek magical realism, Chen’s stories coalesce into a portrait of a people striving for openings where mobility is limited. Twins take radically different paths: one becomes a professional gamer, the other a political activist. A woman moves to the city to work at a government call center and is followed by her violent ex-boyfriend. A man is swept into the high-risk, high-reward temptations of China’s volatile stock exchange. And a group of people sit, trapped for no reason, on a subway platform for months, waiting for official permission to leave.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eWith acute social insight, Te-Ping Chen layers years of experience reporting on the ground in China with incantatory prose in this taut, surprising debut, proving herself both a remarkable cultural critic and an astonishingly accomplished new literary voice.\u003c\/p\u003e | \u003cp\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eOne of Barack Obama's Summer Reading Picks   Named a Most Anticipated Title of 2021 by: \u003cem\u003eElle,\u003c\/em\u003e \u003cem\u003eEsquire, O Magazine, Buzzfeed, Newsweek\u003c\/em\u003e, \u003cem\u003eRefinery29, Lit Hub, The Millions, Bustle, Redbook, The Rumpus, Electric Literature, Write or Die Tribe, Autostraddle\u003c\/em\u003e, and \u003cem\u003eThe Buzz Magazines\u003c\/em\u003e\u003c\/strong\u003e  \u003cstrong\u003eNamed a Best Book of February by \u003cem\u003eWashington Post,\u003c\/em\u003e\u003cem\u003eO Magazine\u003c\/em\u003e, \u003cem\u003eHarper's Bazaar,\u003c\/em\u003e\u003cem\u003eBuzzfeed, \u003c\/em\u003eand \u003cem\u003eThe Millions\u003c\/em\u003e\u003c\/strong\u003e \u003cstrong\u003eNamed a Best Book of the Year So Far by \u003cem\u003eEsquire, Fortune, \u003c\/em\u003eand the BBC  A \u003cem\u003eNew York Times Book Review\u003c\/em\u003e Editors' Choice\u003c\/strong\u003e \u003cstrong\u003eAn Indie Next Pick  One of \u003cem\u003eHarper's Bazaar\u003c\/em\u003e's Must-Read Books by Asians and Asian-Americans  One of \u003cem\u003eMarie Claire\u003c\/em\u003e's Best Books by Asian-Americans of 2021  Named a Most Anticipated Title by a Woman of Color for 2021 by R.O. Kwon in \u003cem\u003eElectric Literature\u003c\/em\u003e\u003c\/strong\u003e \u003cstrong\u003eAn \u003cem\u003eAfar Media\u003c\/em\u003e Book Club Selection\u003c\/strong\u003e \u003cstrong\u003eThe Nervous Breakdown Book Club Selection\u003c\/strong\u003e \u003cstrong\u003eA Featured New Release from \u003cem\u003eLit Hub,\u003c\/em\u003e\u003cem\u003eThe Millions\u003c\/em\u003e, and \u003cem\u003eBook Riot\u003c\/em\u003e  A Great Story Collection of 2021 by an Asian-American Author from \u003cem\u003eBook Riot\u003c\/em\u003e  A Featured Debut from \u003cem\u003eA Mighty Blaze\u003c\/em\u003e  One of \u003cem\u003eThe Nerd Daily\u003c\/em\u003e's 6 Must-Read Story Collections by POC Authors\u003c\/strong\u003e     “Dazzling...Riveting...Chen excels at gritty realism, vividly portraying the widening gap between China’s haves and have-nots...Though the characters never mention the Cultural Revolution, Great Leap Forward or Tiananmen Square massacre by name, the turmoil of the past haunts them as they rush headlong into the future.\"  —\u003cstrong\u003e\u003cem\u003eNew York Times Book Review\u003c\/em\u003e\u003c\/strong\u003e   \"[Chen] excels at realism and vivid portrayals of the widening gap between China’s haves and have-nots.”  —\u003cstrong\u003e\u003cem\u003eNew York Times Book Review \u003c\/em\u003eEditors' Choice\u003c\/strong\u003e   \"A stirring and brilliant collection of stories probing the contradictions and beauties of modern China, Te-Ping Chen's debut is both love letter and sharp social criticism. Through scenes firmly planted in reality as well as tales of the bizarre and magical, Chen reveals portraits lovingly rendered with insight from her years as a reporter with the \u003cem\u003eWall Street Journal\u003c\/em\u003e.\"  —\u003cstrong\u003e\u003cem\u003eElle\u003c\/em\u003e\u003c\/strong\u003e \"Revelatory...From a ripped-from-the-headlines vignette about a rural farmer trying to build a plane, to a surreal allegory about passengers trapped in a station waiting for a train that never arrives, Chen’s writing gives readers just enough to leave them wanting more. It’s a must-read from an up-and-coming fiction writer.\"  —\u003cstrong\u003e\u003cem\u003eFortune\u003c\/em\u003e\u003c\/strong\u003e   \"Remarkable...Unfolds across the modern Chinese diaspora, pinballing between acutely observed realism and tragicomic magical realism...Each haunting, exquisitely crafted story poses powerful questions about freedom, disillusion, and cultural thought, firmly establishing Chen as an emerging visionary to watch.\"  —\u003cstrong\u003e\u003cem\u003eEsquire\u003c\/em\u003e\u003c\/strong\u003e   \"Dazzling...Rich and varied...Chen unleashes a powerful and enticing new voice, at times as strange as the dark fairy tale master Carmen Maria Machado, at others as inventive as the absurdist king George Saunders—but always layered with the texture available to a foreign correspondent who has seen it all...Story by story, in China and the U.S., Chen builds a world in which oppression and contentment coexist, not some awful near future but the bizarre here and now...At its most elegant, a Chen story isn’t all an artful reimagining of a cool newspaper feature but instead something more imagistic and elemental, a reflection on how we all live, no matter where we live. The logic of her observations can be terrifying. There is virtuoso writing, which serves to sharpen her political allegories...Perhaps the secret ingredient in Chen’s fusion of reporting chops and creative force is her core insight into human nature: that in the face of loneliness, unfairness, oppression, we rationalize; we cling to small comforts.\"  —\u003cstrong\u003e\u003cem\u003eLos Angeles Times\u003c\/em\u003e\u003c\/strong\u003e   \"As brilliant an instance of a journalist's keen eye manifesting in luminous fiction as one can find...Chen evinces a capacity to sweep with astonishing ease from individuals to communities, from the settled middle-class to rural poverty, from blazing dissidents to Chinese Communist Party (CCP) loyalists...[An] unlikely page-turner...Pretty much everything about \u003cem\u003eLand of Big Numbers\u003c\/em\u003e is specific and keen yet somehow generalizable. These stories could appear as news right now, at any moment...The broad strokes of it all, truly, could happen anywhere—maybe right where you are. It is a gift to read stories like this...Thank goodness for journalists like Chen, who even with fiction can teach us so much.\"  —\u003cstrong\u003eNPR\u003c\/strong\u003e   \"[A] blazingly talented newcomer...The daughter of Chinese immigrants, Chen is a reporter for \u003cem\u003eThe Wall Street Journal\u003c\/em\u003e who spent several years covering Hong Kong and Beijing for the newspaper. In her debut story collection, \u003cem\u003eLand of Big Numbers\u003c\/em\u003e, she moves effortlessly between the two countries, illuminating the lives of ordinary, often damaged, people on both sides of the Pacific...Chen has said she’s interested in the trade-offs people are willing to make to prosper under repressive regimes, yet she is the least didactic of writers. Her characters are finely etched, often quirky, sometimes wonderful...These stories combine...the unadorned clarity of the very best newspaper writing and the inspired, weird, poetic inventions of fiction. Chen is the real deal.\"  —\u003cstrong\u003e\u003cem\u003eAssociated Press\u003c\/em\u003e\u003c\/strong\u003e   \"Provocative...Where a news story limits itself to questions that can be answered, Chen’s fiction embraces uncertainty and contradiction that at times make it feel truer than a dispatch...Chen’s stories are concerned with the poetry of mundane details. Readers of contemporary American fiction, which often charts the rhythms of the everyday, will find the stories in \u003cem\u003eLand of Big Numbers \u003c\/em\u003efamiliar and accessible...Chen has a gift for allegory...Chen echoes some of Lahiri’s tone. Their characters grapple with alienation, loneliness, indecision, and inertia but are not usually beset by plot-churning death or disaster. Both authors resist endings that force a resolution or a revelation. Instead, their stories fade out softly, like a rung bell...Her fiction is not shorthand—nor is it journalism—but it manages to capture the humanity behind the headlines. With so many lines cut between the United States and China, the small cross-cultural bridge that Chen builds with \u003cem\u003eLand of Big Numbers\u003c\/em\u003e feels particularly welcome.\"   —\u003cstrong\u003e\u003cem\u003eForeign Policy\u003c\/em\u003e\u003c\/strong\u003e   \"This sharp collection of short stories about modern China...is as fine a portrayal of the last decade as any work of nonfiction. The stories range from tragic to satirical, but they’re rooted in a close observation of life in China—and in the surreal ups and downs of everyday life, bureaucracy, and oppression.\"  —\u003cstrong\u003e\u003cem\u003eForeign Policy\u003c\/em\u003e, Book Recommendation\u003c\/strong\u003e   \"As a \u003cem\u003eWall Street Journal \u003c\/em\u003ecorrespondent, Chen lived longer in Beijing than anywhere except her U.S. hometown. Her stories in t\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"Mariner Books","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":44889922502885,"sku":"NP9780358272557","price":18.99,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":false}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/1842\/7735\/files\/9780358272557.jpg?v=1730232196","url":"https:\/\/k12savings.com\/es\/products\/land-of-big-numbers-stories-isbn-9780358272557","provider":"K12savings","version":"1.0","type":"link"}