The animals and plants that figure in Xue's latest are used not only as metaphor but also as omens and characters. "What led to this? Milk. That's right—milk," says the cat who narrates "An Affectionate Companion's Jottings." The flowers of "The Roses at the Hospital" shelter babies as though invested with a secret power. Xue's Kafkaesque world is grounded in reality but infused with an eerie omniscient feeling. In the affecting title story, an unnamed "critter" lives "in the black earth beneath the desert." As hard as it digs, it never reaches the surface. Elsewhere, cockroaches, rats, and other creatures are objects of wonder and/or narrative catalysts. Xue (Five Spice Street) is a natural storyteller; eight of her 13 stories have first-person narrators who share a confidence or a unique observation that draws the reader in. And, like Kafka, Xue often withholds information to pique interest. The traditional stories fare less well; Xue's direct prose lacks psychological complexity and endings don't live up to foreshadowed promises. But at her best, Xue captures the wonder of the natural world and then, with great assurance, steps beyond into something entirely. (Sept.)

"If China has one possibility of a Nobel laureate, it is Can Xue."—Susan Sontag

"There's a common thread between Can Xue and Japanese writer Haruki Murakami in that both writers use the surreal to expound the oddness of human experiences; but where Murakami's is a kind of hipster existentialism, Can Xue roots her existentialism in folklore. In many ways, Can Xue's place is between Isaac Bashevis Singer and Franz Kafka."—World Literature Today

"At her best, Xue captures the wonder of the natural world and then, with great assurance, steps beyond into something entirely."—Publishers Weekly

"Xue's creativity with descriptive language is as innovative as that of the American writers Ray Bradbury and John Steinbeck; her experiments with synesthesia result in strikingly detailed backgrounds for her insubstantial plots."—The Harvard Crimson

"Can Xue's stories unfold with an eerie, dreamlike intensity. The ingenuity of her uncanny vision calls to mind a mix of Jorge Luis Borges and George Mac Donald. But her most striking accomplishment is the way she brings her characters to life. Despite.the bizarre situations in which they find themselves, the narrators of these stories are utterly identifiable, imbued with an endearing pathos."—Baltimore Sun