Six stories linked by a glitch in the cloud that opens up the private archives of ordinary lives and breaks down the boundaries between secrecy, memory and truth. There is an adopted child, fascinated by the earth, worms and insects; there is a bird-lover who has gone deaf and invents a novel way of translating birdsong into gestures and images. There is Min-min, who learns resilience by climbing to the tops of tall trees; there is also Kuan, who, in search of the clouded leopard, works through his grief for his wife amidst the mountains and the rain; and there is, as a constant backdrop, a wild natural world, populated by majestic beasts that yearn to live freely. Through these stories, one recognises silhouettes and connections. From this subtle interweaving emerges a unique work, in which ecopoetry brings together nature, childhood and memories. From one story to the next, Taiwan emerges as a sensitive place of memory and connection, where the fragility of life, attention to the humblest of beings and the persistence of intimate traces paint a picture of a world that is both threatened and still habitable.
Wu Ming-yi, born in 1971 in Taiwan, teaches at Dong Hwa National University. Known for his environmental commitments, he is the author of several literary works, among which collections of short stories and novels. Two of his novels have been published in French: The Sleep Navigation Lines (You Feng, 2013) and The Man with the Faceted Eyes (Stock, 2014). This latest novel received the award 2014 Island Book Fiction, awarded at the International Book Fair islander of Ouessant.
Gwennaël Gaffric (born 1987) is a lecturer in Chinese studies at the Université Jean Moulin Lyon 3, where he teaches Chinese language and culture. He is the author of several articles in French, English and Chinese on Chinese-language literature (China, Hong Kong and Taiwan). His recent research focuses on contemporary science fiction in Chinese. He is also one of the leading translators from Chinese of general literature, science fiction, fantasy and the humanities (literary studies, philosophy). His translations include the best-selling volumes of Liu Cixin's Three-Body Problem trilogy. He regularly translates for L'Asiathèque, where he heads the "Taiwan Fiction" collection. He has also published at L'asiathèque: La littérature à l'ère de l'anthropocène (2019).