The Chilli Bean Paste Clan by Yan Ge

The Chilli Bean Paste Clan by Yan Ge

Set in a fictional town in West China, this is the story of the Duan-Xue family, owners of the lucrative chilli bean paste factory, and their formidable matriarch. As Gran's eightieth birthday approaches, her middle-aged children get together to make preparations. Family secrets are revealed and long-time sibling rivalries flare up with renewed vigour. As Shengqiang struggles unsuccessfully to juggle the demands of his mistress and his wife, the biggest surprises of all come from Gran herself.

(Winner of English Pen Award)

Yan Ge was born in the Chinese province of Sichuan in 1984 and currently resides in Dublin. She is a Comparative Literature PhD candidate who was a visiting scholar at Duke University in 2011 and a writer in residence at the Crossing Border Festival in the Netherlands in November 2012. Yan Ge focuses on feuding families and small-town life in his realistic, funny literature, which is primarily Sichuan-based. People's Literature magazine has designated her one of China's 20 future literary masters. Her works have been translated into a variety of languages, including German, French, and others. The novella White Horse is one of her works that has been translated into English.