Review elsewhere: the first book in English by Chinese author Yan Ge is a real success

Fiction

Literary sensation Yan Ge. Photo: Joanna Millington

Yan Ge has been a literary sensation in her native China since the age of 17, when she won a short story competition that led to a flood of offers from publishers. She has won almost every literary award in her native country, which she left in 2011 to learn English and discover Western culture. She married an Irishman and lived here for a few years before moving to the UK.

Somewhere else, her first writing in English, also makes her proficient in her adopted language. These stories are both exotic and familiar, a rare feat for anyone, regardless of language.