Alice Evelyn Yang

Spanning three generations and moving between Japanese-occupied Manchuria, the Cultural Revolution, and contemporary America, A Beast Slinks Towards Beijing is a dark, magical-realist family saga about inherited trauma, historical violence, and the stories families carry across generations. Twenty-five-year-old Qianze has not seen her father, Weihong, since he abandoned her on the night of her fourteenth birthday. Eleven years later, he reappears at her childhood home in Virginia, aged beyond recognition and struggling with dementia and alcoholism. Haunted by a half-forgotten prophecy, he begins recounting his past, including his violent experiences as a Red Guard during the Cultural Revolution and the hardships endured by his mother under Japanese occupation. As Qianze listens, she discovers a family history far more disturbing than she imagined. Strange visions begin to invade her everyday life: fox spirits follow her through the city, and a terrifying mythical creature stalks her nightmares. Blending Chinese and Japanese folklore with historical fiction and supernatural horror, Yang explores how colonialism, political violence, and family secrets shape successive generations. The novel asks whether understanding the past can offer a path toward forgiveness—or whether some histories continue to haunt the living.