WINNER OF THE 2024 SINGAPORE LITERATURE PRIZE - TRANSLATION "Cocoon is a stupendous novel a
beautiful and formidable achievement on the grandest scale. Its ruthless psychological realism
is wondrously amplified by Zhang Yueran's magical powers of description. 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 author of the international bestseller Atonement "In a novel by the
young writer Zhang Yueran two old friends confront the legacy of China's tumultuous past. Ms.
Zhang's focus and finesse-plus the rhythmic subtlety of Mr. Tiang's English prose-make this
novel a luminous gateway into current Chinese fiction for readers seeking an entry-point."-Boyd
Tonkin Wall Street Journal "Zhang dazzles with an intricately crafted web of secrets centered
on two childhood friends in China. In lyrical prose Zhang deeply humanizes her leads as they
look to the past in an effort to understand themselves. It adds up to a remarkable and tragic
story of family and community." -Publishers Weekly Starred Review Cheng Gong and Li Jiaqi go
way back. Both hailing from dysfunctional families they grew up together in a Chinese
provincial capital in the 1980s. Now many years later the childhood friends reunite and
discover how much they still have in common. Both have always been determined to follow the
tracks of their grandparents' generation to the heart of a mystery that perhaps should have
stayed buried. What exactly happened during that rainy night in 1967 in the abandoned water
tower? Zhang Yueran's layered and hypnotic prose reveals much about the unshakable power of
friendship and the existence of hope. Hers is a unique fresh voice representing a new
generation of important young writers from China shedding a different light on the country's
recent past.
