Straw Dogs Of The Universe A Novel Ye Chun by Ye Chun 9781646220632, 1646220633 instant download after payment.

A harrowing & redemptive immigrant story for readers of Pachinko

A Chinese railroad worker & his young daughter—sold into servitude—in 19th century California search for family, fulfillment, and belonging in a violent new land

“Heaven & earth do not pick & choose.

They see everything as straw dogs.”

A sweeping historical novel of the American West from the little-seen perspective of those who helped to build it, Straw Dogs of the Universe traces the story of one Chinese father & his young daughter, desperate to find him against all odds.

After her village is devastated by famine, 10-year-old Sixiang is sold to a human trafficker for a bag of rice & six silver coins. Her mother is reluctant to let her go, but the promise of a better life for her beloved daughter ultimately sways her. Arriving in America with the profits from her sale & a single photograph of Guifeng, her absent father, Sixiang journeys across an unfamiliar American landscape in the hopes of reuniting her family. 

As she makes her way through an unforgiving new world, her father, a railroad worker in California, finds his attempts to build a life for himself both upended & defined by along-lost love & the seemingly inescapable violence of the American West. A generational saga ranging from the villages of China to the establishment of the transcontinental railroad & the anti-Chinese movement in California, Straw Dogs of the Universe considers the tenacity of family ties & the courage it takes to survive in a country that rejects you, even as it relies upon your labor.

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YE CHUN is a bilingual Chinese American writer & literary translator. Her debut story collection, Hao, was longlisted for the 2022 Andrew Carnegie Medal for Excellence in Fiction. She is also the author of two books of poetry, Travel Over Water & Lantern Puzzle; a novel in Chinese, Peach Tree in the Sea; & four volumes of translations.