# @deadinkbooks on Instagram

- **Type:** Image
- **Original URL:** https://www.instagram.com/p/DN46-v40HG2
- **Gondola URL:** https://gondola.cc/posts/33775719-deadinkbooks-instagram
- **Thumbnail:** https://img.gondola.cc/tr:w-,h-,fo-auto/postThumbnails/41476dba48.jpg
- **Posted:** 2025-08-28T06:55:29.000+00:00
- **Account Owner:** Dead Ink Books (@deadinkbooks) — https://gondola.cc/deadinkbooks

## Caption

Alice Evelyn Yang on her debut novel, a magical realist reckoning with the legacy of a Chinese-American family, A BEAST SLINKS TOWARDS BEIJING:

"In both the first and last chapters of my debut novel, an azalea bush appears, bookending the story. In Chinese culture, the azalea is known as the homecoming flower. I didn't know this before I wrote my book, which, at its core is a homecoming story; I only knew that, in the first house of my childhood, there were azalea bushes lining the driveway. Come spring, they bloomed in a riot of colour, and I would squat on the warm cement while my father and I weeded the garden. In the summer, we continued the ritual. Once the azaleas had peaked, I would sit in the shade of their leaves, cradling roly polys in my hands. We did this in silence.

I never wanted my parents to speak Chinese in public, thinking that the foreign language that spilled out of their mouths would brand me. Researching and writing A Beast Slinks Towards Beijing was an act of radical empathy as I imagined myself in the skins of characters with similar lived experiences to my parents: the Cultural Revolution, immigration to a Western country, raising a Western daughter. It is, perhaps, also an act of seeking forgiveness for the shame that dappled my childhood: a return of sorts to the house of my childhood with a new understanding of what was happening inside of it."

-- Alice Evelyn Yang // aliceevelynyang

Pre-orders now open! Link to A BEAST SLINKS TOWARDS BEIJING 🐇 in our bio!

#deadinkbooks #indiepress #literaryfiction

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indiepress, literaryfiction, deadinkbooks

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