Service95 Recommends is the home of the books we love and reviews from our contributors. A Beast Slinks Towards Beijing by Alice Evelyn Yang is a tense, atmospheric tale that explores political intrigue and human ambition through the lens of a looming, mysterious threat.

What We Say: Qianze has not seen her father since he walked out on the night of her 14th birthday and disappeared without a trace. When he reappears 11 years later, just as suddenly as he left, he isn’t the man Qianze remembers: he is older, more fragile, and haunted by a half-forgotten prophecy. A Beast Slinks Towards Beijing explores the horrors of Mao’s Cultural Revolution and the brutal Japanese occupation of Manchuria through a magical realist family saga. Expect an unflinching look at the legacy of colonialism and the effects of intergenerational trauma, with beautifully rendered folklore.

Available on Bookshop.org, Waterstones, and Barnes & Noble

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