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's writing is outstandingly imaginative... The Chilli Bean Paste Clan delves deep into the pettiness and shortcomings of family relationships, dissecting them with remarkable insight and humour.... Yan Ge is not just a talented story-teller, she is also a versatile stylist, able to put her mastery of the local dialect to excellent use." --China Literature Media Award judging panel, 2013
"A fascinating glimpse into the life of a dysfunctional family in modern China."--Marina Lewycka, author of A Short History of Tractors in Ukrainian
Ge, Yan: - Yan Ge was born in 1984 in Sichuan in China, and currently lives in Dublin. She is a PhD candidate in Comparative Literature and was visiting scholar at Duke University from 2011 to 2012, as well as writer in residence at Crossing Border Festival in the Netherlands in November 2012. Yan Ge writes realist, witty fiction, strongly Sichuan-based, focusing on squabbling families and small-town life. She has been named by People's Literature magazine as one of China's 20 future literary masters. Her writings have been translated into German, French and other languages. Her fiction translated in English includes the novella White Horse.
Harman, Nicky: - Passionate about spreading Chinese literature to English readers, Nicky Harman has translated the works of many renowned Chinese authors into English. They include Anni Baobei's The Road of Others, Chan Koon-Chung's The Unbearable Dreamworld of Champa the Driver, Chen Xiwo's Book of Sins, Han Dong's A Phone Call from Dalian: Collected Poems, Jia Pingwa's Happy Dreams, Dorothy Tse's Snow and Shadow, Xinran's Letter from an Unknown Chinese Mother, Xu Xiaobin's Crystal Wedding, Xu Zhiyuan's Paper Tiger, and Yan Ge's The Chili Bean Paste Clan. Harman has won several awards, including the Mao Tai Cup People's Literature Chinese-English translation prize 2015 and the 2013 China International Translation Contest, Chinese-to-English section. When not translating, she promotes contemporary Chinese fiction to the general English-language reader through literary events, blogs, talks, a short story project on Paper-Republic.org, and with the Writing Chinese project 2014-2016 at Leeds University. She also mentors new translators, teaches summer schools, and judges translation competitions. Harman resides in the United Kingdom and tweets as the China Fiction Bookclub @cfbcuk.
