The Vegetarian by Han Kang (trans. Deborah Smith) – Set in modern day South Korea, this short novel reminded me of Margaret Atwood’s The Edible Woman in its body horror centered around a young woman’s decision to stop eating meat (or more) and the pathologising reactions of those closest to her. Other critics have traced its ecogothic credentials. (Sarah Olive, Bangor)
The Bonesetter’s Daughter and Hundred Secret Senses by Amy Tan – These novels add ghostly and gory dimensions to Tan’s trademark plots featuring young, Chinese-American women questing after their family tree and a sense of belonging, negotiating their transnational ethnic identity. (Sarah Olive, Bangor)
The Astonishing Colour of After by Emily X.R. Pan -Set in America and Taiwan, this young adult novel has elements of gothic, including allusions to Emily Dickinson’s poetry, ghosts and ghostly communications …including an explanation of the East-Asian buddhist concept of the hungry ghost and its associated festival, supernatural avians and a central concern with memory and remembering. It’s also notable for its heterosexual, lesbian and cross-cultural love stories (Sarah Olive, Bangor).
Patient X by David Peace – A fictionalised (or is it?) biography of Ryūnosuke Akutagawa, populated with lashings of rehashings of the famed Japanese writer’s own work. It has a thematic emphasis on in/sanity and containment. The friendlier critics suggest it has stylistic echoes of Henry James and Edgar Allen Poe. (Sarah Olive, Bangor)