The Land of Big Numbers

Land of Big Numbers by Te-Ping Chen is a heartbreaking and compassionate debut novel that ranges over the lives of Chinese people as they navigate the complex crossroads of private desire, state power, and social tradition. Drawing on her experience as a journalist in China, Chen weaves together stories that shuttle between hard-headed realism and magical realism fantasy. In one, twin brothers diverge wildly, one becoming a political activist, the other a professional game player. In another, a woman moves to the city to work in a government call center and is being stalked by her ex-boyfriend. In another, a man is drawn into the China stock market craziness, and another is about people trapped on a subway platform waiting to be let out. With razor-sharp insight and poetic prose, this book paints a vivid portrait of a nation in motion and people fighting back within it.

Land of Big Numbers is a scorching and incisive first book that offers a raw look at life in China today. Te-Ping Chen marries journalistic accuracy and poetic prose to write characters that are rich, emotive, and profoundly relatable. The stories swing between gritty portrayals of the everyday challenges and dream-like instances of magical realism that collectively illuminate the struggle between individual longing and official control. Whether following a political demonstrator, a computer game enthusiast, or a group of citizens mysteriously stranded on the platform of a subway station, all of the tales remain. The collection is full of feeling and perceptive in its social commentaries, capturing private as well as political realities without turning to stereotypes. Chen writes empathetically and factually, speaking for people navigating through change, tension, and hope. This isa beautifully written book that offers both literary depth and cultural insight, solidly establishing Te-Ping Chen as being among the best of the new breed of writers.