A beast slinks towards Beijing : a novel / Alice Evelyn Yang.

Enhanced descriptions from Syndetics:

A dark, magical realist debut family saga that moves through the Japanese occupation of Manchuria, the Cultural Revolution, and the present day to explore the effects of intergenerational trauma, the legacy of colonialism, and the inescapability of fate.

Qianze has not seen her father in eleven years, since he walked out of her life the night of her fourteenth birthday and disappeared without a trace. But then she gets a call--there is a man on the porch of her childhood home, and he's asking for her. This man isn't the Ba Qianze remembers: he is much older, more fragile, and worst of all, haunted by a half-forgotten prophecy.

While Qianze wrestles with what she owes this near-stranger, Ba begins telling stories of his past. From his bloody days as a Red Guard during the Cultural Revolution to his mother's youth under Japanese occupation, he circles around the prophecy he came to deliver. Qianze has always longed to know more about her family history, but as Ba reveals a past far darker than she could have imagined, she finds herself plagued by strange visions--fox spirits trail her on her evening commute, a terrifying jackalope stalks her nightmares, and the looming prophecy slinks ever closer.

Spanning decades and continents, A Beast Slinks Towards Beijing employs a combination of stunningly rendered folklore and atmospheric prose to examine the legacy of colonialism through the eyes of three generations. Alice Evelyn Yang's debut novel is a story of family and forgiveness, of folklore and fate, that will leave you unsettled and undone.

Reviews provided by Syndetics

Library Journal Review

DEBUT The world of Yang's first novel is full of beasts. A grandmother (Ming) and granddaughter (Qianze) who have never met are both described as magpies. Qianze spots real (or possibly imagined) foxes everywhere. Ming sometimes refers to her daughter-in-law as a fox demon; Ming's own mother-in-law referred to her as such upon her return home after two years' imprisonment by the Japanese army during Japan's occupation of Manchuria in the 1930s and '40s. Hares with antlers chase both women--mostly in dreams, although one such creature gored Ming's hand during childhood. Linking the two generations is Weihong--Ming's son, Qianze's father, who may be an explanation for the continued presence of these fantastical creatures in his family's lives. After a fight with his father, Weihong leaves for university without saying farewell to Ming or his sister. Thirty-five years later, Weihong also leaves his wife and daughter without a word and is gone for 11 years before reappearing in Qianze's life. She is left to decide how to react and to examine the cost of forgiveness. VERDICT A deftly rendered, engrossing multigenerational work of magical realism that integrates 20th-century Chinese history, complex family ties, and lingering traumas.--Jessica Epstein

Publishers Weekly Review

Yang's visionary debut finds a Chinese American woman grappling with her father's claims about the curse placed on his life. Twenty-five-year-old Manhattanite Qianze reluctantly takes in her estranged father, Weihong, after receiving a call that he'd wandered onto the porch of her childhood home in Virginia. An alcoholic with dementia, he needs constant care. As he weaves in and out of lucidity, he tells Qianze his life story, beginning with growing up in Anshan, China, with an abusive father who hated him. One day, in search of a way to frighten his younger sister, Kangmei, their parents' favorite, Weihong takes her to a seer known as the Woman in the Alley. Instead, it's Weihong who's terrified when the Woman in the Alley shows him an apparition of himself with a monster growing in his belly. He goes on to join the Red Guards and commits massacres during the Cultural Revolution, knowing that his zealousness will shield his family from the same fate, and that the beast will protect him from being killed. Meanwhile, in the present-day narrative, Weihong's presence in Qianze's life causes friction with work and with her boyfriend. The father-daughter dynamic adds an intriguing layer to Yang's multigenerational story of family sacrifice and the lengths people will go to protect those they love. This one hits hard. Agent: Iwalani Kim, Sanford J. Greenburger Assoc. (Jan.)