The two main characters meet one evening and spend the time sharing everything that has happened in the years since they last saw each other.

Intertwining stories and two POVs showcases the author’s ability to switch between timelines and narrators.

The story, however, is character-driven and in order to enjoy this book you’ll need to love one or both of the main characters. Told in second-person, each section focuses on the multi-generational experiences of each family.

This story was fairly complex yet interesting as it was set in the background of China's history. It follows two characters Li Jiaqi and Cheng Gong in two segments of life between both narratives.

It was a different type of book for me because it dealt with relationships and friendships with mystery packed right in the middle! I really enjoyed that you have to figure out how everything fell into place, while being surrounded by their relationship. Overall, I found this to be an interesting and moving story.

3.5 stars

Cocoon rests between hopeful and depressing. For a book that tackles the intricacies of history and how the pasts define us, intentional or not, I relish the disconcerting feeling after reading Cocoon. Grief and trauma are rarely resolved, and while they don’t represent the lives of those affected, the long-lasting effects are undeniable. As such, it is especially heartbreaking to witness how abandonment experienced by Jiaqi and Cheng Gong drives them to chase after ghosts of the past to the point of obsession. The insatiable want for the past also results in the duo’s inability to accept love in front of them.

The first half of Cocoon moves slower, and it takes some concentration to connect the dots between Jiaqi and Cheng Gong’s stories. The second half has a faster narration as the readers get close to revealing the mystery that occurred 50 years ago. Cocoon is a great companion read for A Map for the Missing as both books examine the aftermaths of the Cultural Revolution and its enduring consequences on family dynamics. At its core, Cocoon investigates our tendencies to repeat history and asks the readers, do we have the strength to break through past curses and find the courage to love again?

𝙲𝚘𝚌𝚘𝚘𝚗 (𝟸𝟶𝟷𝟼) 𝚋𝚢 𝚉𝚑𝚊𝚗𝚐 𝚈𝚞𝚎𝚛𝚊𝚗 𝚊𝚗𝚍 𝚝𝚛𝚊𝚗𝚜𝚕𝚊𝚝𝚎𝚍 𝚋𝚢 𝙹𝚎𝚛𝚎𝚖𝚢 𝚃𝚒𝚊𝚗𝚐 (𝟸𝟶𝟸𝟸)

Zhang Yueran is widely described as a 'post-80s' writer and one of the most influential young writers in China. She has been publishing work since she was 14 years old. The following article provides a good overview of Zhang's literary career. https://www.saporedicina.com/english/writer-zhang-yueran/

Cocoon is the story of two childhood friends meeting again as adults and reflecting on their dysfunctional families, the behaviour of adults that affected their families' misfortunes, their friendshipand and the crime that occurred during the Cultural Revolution that ties their families together. The chapters alternate between the two protagonists, Li Jiaqi , the granddaughter of a medical professor, and Cheng Gong, the son of a poor rural family. Sometimes it was a little confusing as the timelines jump around, just like the best of memories, so it provides a sense of realism. It's a story of hardship and disappointment, with glimmers of hope. It is described as a literary thriller but it didn't read like a thriller. More a psychological drama. 3.5-4 ⭐️

I thought this novel was excellent. It is a generational tale of hope, grief, strife, and survival. This is the first time I've read this author and look forward to more.

Translated by Jeremy Tiang, Cocoon by Zhang Yueran is a literary fiction novel. Two decades on from Cheng Gong and Li Jiaqi’s childhood friendship, a surprise encounter at the Beijing train station leads to their reconnection. In recounting their troublesome lives, in alternating chapters, the travails of their family history unfold, as they struggle to adhere to their grandparents’ influence. The unresolved mystery of their grandparents’ past continues to impact their love and choices, resulting in unforeseen consequences. An allegorical narrative with a psychological maturity that is a millennial take on recent Chinese history in an entrancing and delicate tale. A truly enjoyable, insightful story with a warmth that makes for a four-and-a-half star read rating. With thanks to World Editions and the author, for an uncorrected advanced reader copy for review purposes. As always, the opinions herein are totally my own and freely given.

Psychologically complex and intricately plotted, this Chinese general/literary fiction is a rumination on generational trauma and inherited guilt.

The majority of this book takes place in second person, in that it’s a conversation between two friends catching up and revealing their side of a mystery and falling out between them. Yet, aside from a few lines here and there, most of it is in the past tense, so you forget it's in second person for the most part. And the second person is very well done and rather than trying to make it seem like the characters are describing you, the reader, it’s obvious they are talking about one another. So, it works.

The characters are very deep and complex. Most of the novel takes place during an important time in both of their lives - both in terms of what was happening and because they were on the brink of teenagehood - and it’s clear in the scenes of them as adults that this has affected them quite strongly. The descriptions of how a child that age reacts and responds to events around them were spot on - Cheng Gong and Jiaqi are relatable, understandable characters who act their age and make choices that make sense to the reader. Nothing in this book is particularly eventful, which is interesting. It deals with families, and not the happiest of families - there is some neglect, some physical abuse, but nothing overly triggering for readers - and their dynamics. This isn’t an “our actions changed the world” type of story, but a dive into two families, their connection, and how parents' and grandparents' choices affected the youngest generation. It’s not a happy story, that’s for sure, but it feels real.

Given the novel is a translation of a Chinese work, the novel focuses on the aftermath or effects of the Cultural Revolution in China, something I’m afraid to say, I don’t know a great deal about so I can’t really say much about that aspect. This novel though, while dealing with some family history during that time (60-70s) focuses more on how my generation (I’m not sure if they call people my age Millenials in China) was affected by the cultural revolution due to how their parents were affected socially by it, but I didn’t feel I was too out of the loop because most of it deals with more the parents' choices than the country changing around them. The main events of the story take place in the early 1990s, so I’m only about 3 or 4 years younger than the main characters, which really helped bring me into the story, given I don’t have the cultural background to identify with, but I do understand that level of generational different, despite my not living with my grandparents.

Yet, despite all this, on a personal level of reading enjoyment, it was far too heavy and depressing. It seems like while every person was complex, it’s more like most people are broken, terrible things, with good people being few and far between. Everyone apparently has no qualms about cheating on their spouses, for some reason, which makes them seem insincere and hard to sympathize with.

In truth, while I think the book is extremely well written, has moments of beautiful prose, and has in-depth characters that are influenced both by their home life and society at large, I can’t say I loved the story. It did drag a bit in places for me, and the end result of the “mystery” aspect wasn’t overly interesting. Yet, I definitely enjoyed it and think anyone who has an interest in translated works, books about family dynamics, and China in the late 20th century will enjoy it or find value in it.

First of all, I would like to thank Netgalley and the publisher for providing me with an early copy of this book, in return for an honest review.

The book tells the story of two lost 30-something adults living in a fast-changing China. They are both haunted by a terrible crime that occurred in their town during their grandparents' time (Cultural Revolution), and the novel essentially explores the repercussions of this crime on the two protagonists psyche, relationships, and happiness. At the same time it describes how the lives of a plethora of secondary characters were affected by the same crime, and how all the events intersected and created multi-generational suffering. The story is told from the alternating perspectives of the two protagonists, and jumps back and forth in time, to weave the multi-faceted narrative.

Overall I liked the book. Its style was somewhat unusual for me, and that led to pacing that was slower than I'm used to. I felt like the book just did not lend itself to be read in one go, so I took my time over a few days. I think I ended up being better off as a result - the story flower organically and had time to be layered in my mind. I particularly liked the way the atmosphere of dejection and disassociation was described in the book - it felt very real and very painful. The characters all felt very much in pain, and the pain was real and relatable. It's this latter point that makes this such a terrific book in my view - none of the drama felt forced. It was all simple and average people suffering in a self-imposed prison of loneliness. I also found the description of the role families play in people's emotional maturity and "wholeness" very well done. It made me reflect and consider things about myself, which is always a great outcome from reading a book.

The only reason I can't give this book 5 starts is indeed the pacing and the narrative structure. For me, personally, it made the story very difficult to follow. I sometimes forgot which character was which, whose grandfather did what to which other grandfather, and whose father was with which mother. I completely see this as my own limitation, but this doesn't make me like the book more. So - 4 stars it is.

Highly recommended to anyone who likes family sagas, contemporary and bold literature about China, and what it means to grow up in a vastly changing culture/society/economy.

Thank you for granting me access to an advance copy of this book. I can't wait for everyone to read this book, I enjoyed the nuances displayed when describing dysfunctional families. Even though I couldn't related, the way it's written provide a fly-on-the-wall atmosphere that draws the reader in

China: the past as seen in the grandparents, the present as seen in the parents, and the future as seen in the children who don't understand.

I had the impression of young people wanting to understand their grandparents who went through the Cultural Revolution, and their parents, who are in the midst of a new capitalist-minded country, struggling to get ahead in life and leaving behind the traditional way of life of the old China.

The younger generation have to deal with grandparents they don't understand, parents who leave them behind to search for a future, or divorced parents who go separate ways and let the children be taken care of primarily by the grandparents. The stories are sometimes raw and everything sordid or good is shown honestly and realistically to the reader.

I think this novel is so specific to time and place that the readers for which it was intended, the people in China, will get much more from it than readers in another culture, reading a translated version, and trying to understand the context and complete underlying message.

I can see why this author is popular in her home country.

"We've just wrapped that fog around ourselves, each of us spinning it into a cocoon."

And part of that fog is made up of the memories we build as we grow and it is only with time and an occasional conversations that we realise that hey, that memory is not really what happened, we had an important piece of information skewed or missing. So the stories we thought were built on solid rock are in fact standing on shaky sand.

Zhang's story seeps through lots of memories which form what happens to the families touched by a crime committed back during the Cultural revolution. How this crime had it's effect on the victim, the perpetrator and their descendants. A sort of 'the sins of the father being visited onto the son' on a repeated mode.

Although I thought of stopping reading several times because it's pacing is rather slow, something in the story kept me going. The second half's pace picked up and I kept on this till the end.

An ARC gently provided by author/publisher via Netgalley.

I never talk about an authors pros, but found the ones in this book to be worth highlighting. Just the way she would describe an action or situation made me want to keep reading not only to know what happened next but what other great nugget of descriptor she had for the reader. This book is like a long lazy river that you know ends and violent Rapids and although the journey is slow and steady the payoff is worth sticking around. I thought the translation wasn’t even detectable the book is about a lot of different things but mainly the younger generation understanding the older one I truly enjoyed this book and would love to read more by this author. I received this book from NetGalley and the publisher but I am leaving this review voluntarily please forgive any mistakes as I am blind and dictate my review.

Yueran's prose in Cocoon is to die for. I cannot express how effortless it was to read this book; opening it and laying eyes on the page was all I had to do and Yueran did the rest. It was like being carried on a gentle wave down a winding river.

That said, it was a very long, slow-moving river at times and often I found it hard to track with the direction Cocoon was taking me. I grasped that there was a mystery, but the typical sense of urgency a thriller engenders was missing here, lost in the literary focus on the characters and their interior narratives. It was, for me, both a deeply satisfying for that reason and also frustrating in that it wove around the plot circuitously. I still cannot decide how much I enjoyed the novel or the degree to which I was disappointed by it.

The novel spans three generations of two families, their histories twisted together by the events of China's Cultural Revolution and communist regime. The characters have fallen into the chasms created by the divisive policies of the Cultural Revolution and it is their reconciliation with that fact which the reader witnesses. There are mundane tragedies: a father and son estranged by the shifting values, a marriage begun out of spite, a wife abused, a child abandoned. Then there is the mutual tragedy -- a crime -- which threatens both families' futures, an act that arose out of the political climate of the Cultural Revolution. This is the great mystery of the novel. What was that horrific crime? Why and how could it traverse down through generations?

The two narrators are the 3rd, latest generation of these two families, the grandchildren of the Chinese Old Guard and the children of the "sent down" youths of the revolution. They are childhood friends and enemies simultaneously, caught in the mess of their families' tragedy. The fallout of China's cultural and political upheaval is told through their eyes. Through their perspective we see the actions and feel the torments of their parents and grandparents and the effect of these massive cultural shifts on familial cohesion.

They are the generation that grew out of and yet distant to China's traumatic history. Theirs is a moment of a different upheaval: China's return to a capitalist society, the abandonment of the austerity of the 1960s and 1970s. The novel dwells on their generation's angst as well: the shifting ideas of sex, love, and success.

This is an epic multigenerational tale, filled with characters that are so perfectly flawed as to be real. The meandering path through their traumas, their lives, and their losses is well worth the long walk.

Two former childhood friends who worked separately to piece together the tragedies of their childhood meet as adults and weave together the tragic and compelling story of their families.

'Cacoon' by Zhang Yueran is written (and translated) well. This is a novel about family, memory, and time--and these themes establish a brilliant connection between the personal and the political, the individual and the collective in China. Two childhood friends, Li Jiaqi and Cheng Gong, meet years later and reminisce about their past filled with trauma, sorrow, and destruction. The novel's form is interesting--Li and Cheng, the alternating narrators, speak to one another through the various chapters, revealing more about the traumatic events that unfolded since they last saw each other. The concept is brilliant, and the descriptive and insightful writing drew me in, but this is a challenging book to get into. Definitely worth a read.

"I came back last month and didn't tell a soul." So begins Zhang Yueran's novel (translated by Jeremy Tiang) and I was enthralled from the beginning. I was fascinated by how one action in the past sent its influence down to future generations like shock waves, pushing characters apart but also keeping them captured in it's gravity of grief.

"The house was terrifyingly quiet, nothing but the sound of chewing, as if they were all gnawing on someone else's bones."

I loved reading this mysterious, sad, rich and incredibly sophisticated novel. It might be the best Chinese novel I've ever read. A book haunted by memories and the longing to know people who are gone. A Masterpiece.

This is a challenging read. It is a literary work told alternately from the viewpoints of Li Jiaqi and Cheng Gong, childhood friends who reunite many years later as adults. They seek to understand themselves and their family histories through past events and the after-effects of seismic historical events such as the Cultural Revolution. It is not an easy read but it worthwhile and I'm glad I read it.

I think this was a beautiful story but I was not a fan of the poetic prose. At times it was difficult to follow. Beautiful, but difficult.

I received a complimentary copy of this book through NetGalley. The opinions expressed in this review are completely my own

Hard and challenging, Cocoon tackles lots of big themes in a book that I found to be quite gripping even when I wanted to shy away and read something easier. The “thriller” element of the book comes in a lot later than I expected. I generally found the translation really lyrical but there were some moments when I mixed perspectives and had to go back because I’d got details messed up. (That might be me as a reader rather than the book.) I wanted more pace and intrigue because of how the book was sold to me but I would absolutely recommend it as a piece of literary fiction.

<i>Cocoon</i> is a work of literary fiction surrounding a conversation between two people who have issues to resolve. Li Jaiqi and Cheng Gong both play together as children and now, as young adults, they are trying to sort out issues and mysteries within their own families. <i>Cocoon</i> is written by award-winning author and editor Zhang Yeuran.

Li Jaiqi and Cheng Gong both grow up in a University environment. Jaiqi’s family are members of the elite professor guild whereas, Chang‘s family are part of the working class in the same community. Against the will of the family Jaiqi chooses to hang around with Cheng and his friends. They explore the University and find all sorts of oddities occurring on campus. The enduring link between Chang and Jaiqi are their grandfathers. Chang’s grandfather is badly injured and lays in a coma in the hospital. Jaiqi’s grandfather works in the hospital and takes care of the injured man. There seems to be a mysterious link between the two men. Both are very hard to communicate with and yet the two grandchildren feel a need to be close to them. Jaiqi’s father is a professor at the University but suddenly goes into private business and leaves his family. Why? Cheng lives with his grandmother and his mother, both of who are living off the benefits his grandfather receives for his injury. Cheng doesn’t understand this arrangement but as he and Jaiqi talk more about their families the mystery is slowly revealed.

I like the way this story slowly unfolds revealing the unusual personality traits within the families of the two protagonists. Jaiqi grandfather was hard to know. We know little about him but we do know that Jaiqi’s father suffered tremendously because of his relationship with his father. Chang on the other hand only knows his comatose grandfather is injured in the cultural revolution and he is considered an embarrassment to the family. How he had ends up in this condition is something no one speaks of. Both grandfather characters are simple but they play very central roles fate of their families. I really like this development.

The author is an unusual way of bringing about the true story by letting us hear each person describe their childhood through conversation. We slowly start to hear about their mothers and fathers and what happens in their life. Slowly the story evolves to where we discover that both families irrevocably linked. This technique of storytelling is quite unique, interesting and almost unexpected.

I highly recommend this book to people who like literary fiction especially where family relationships are involved. I give the book three on five primarily because it didn’t hold my interest until I started to understand where the author going with the tale. I’d like to thank NetGalley and World Editions for providing me with a digital copy of this book. I give this review voluntarily.