Women, Seated

Stupendous … Zhang Yueran’s scenes and images have an unworldly gleam of both hard-won insight and timeless truth. The novel is a triumph – Ian McEwan on Cocoon
A masterful blend of narrative suspense, emotional intimacy and self-discovery – on Cocoon * Guardian *
Propulsive … a nanny witnesses a wealthy Chinese family’s fall from grace - all while knowing their darkest secrets’ * Millions *
A nanny for a wealthy family plots to kidnap the child in her care. Unfortunately, her plans go off the rails … thrilling * NPR *
This is a lovely novel of absences, the story of a family where most of the members are not present, and where the servants are in control. It captures Chinese society at a given moment, but, more important, it creates memorable and fascinating scenes and characters. – Colm Tóibín, author of Brooklyn
Vivid, smart, suspenseful – Mo Yan, Nobel Prize-winning author of Frog
Women, Seated is a propulsive, tightly wound, and beautifully observed novel that explores ideas of power, secrets, motherhood, and sacrifice. I couldn’t put it down. – Meg Wolitzer, author of The Female Persuasion
In this tense, spare novel of class, cruelty, and redemption, a woman working as a live-in housekeeper for a wealthy family in Beijing abruptly finds herself responsible for her employers’ young son when his father is detained by the authorities and his mother goes into hiding * New Yorker *

Zhang Yueran is the award-winning author of several novels written in Chinese, including Cocoon, which was translated around the world and won the Best Asian Novel of the Prix Transfuge in 2019. She lives in Beijing.

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