About the Author
Tianyu Zhou (周天遇) is a writer based in London.
Her work reexamines what is often taken for granted in the mundane, pushing against conventional storytelling while keeping a simple style.
Born and raised in Beijing, she holds an M.A in Creative Writing Prose Fiction at the University of East Anglia.
Tianyu writes both prose and poetry.
String is her first book.
a debut short story collection
String
An Eastern girl comes to the West. She searches herself in others, only to discover they’re all adrift, while she remains trapped in place.
A boy realises the shape of his body is the source of all harm and fear. He practices imagining himself as a pool of liquid to feel safe, but his efforts are in vain.
A little girl’s mother, a North Korean defector, disappears in a border village. In the girls memory, her mother becomes a kite string, or a noose.
From different angels, these fifteen independent stories explore the limits beneath ordinary lives.
'Tianyu Zhou writes stories that illuminate everyday life and reveal the strangeness of the ordinary world.'
– Gerard Woodward, author of I'll Go to Bed at Noon