K-Ming Chang is a Kundiman Fellow and an honoree of the National Book Foundation’s “5 Under 35.” In her debut novel, she creates her subversive and vivid voice with skilled poetic prose and fabulist framework. BESTIARY chronicles the story of three generations of a Taiwanese-American family and the haunting mythology of their homeland. It is told from three alternating perspectives, one from each generation of the same family.

Ama is the family’s grandmother who first immigrated to America from Taiwan with her husband and their two kids. She left behind two children from a previous marriage in Taiwan, which weighs heavily on her from across the world. Her husband, Agong, was a soldier from the mainland in China and 20 years older than her. In America, he has significantly lost his memory. The novel opens with Agong and his children digging through their backyard in Arkansas, searching for the gold he had buried upon their arrival. Ama grows impatient with his memory loss and resorts to violence to try and make him remember.

"BESTIARY is a one-of-a-kind coming-of-age story.... The novel blends mythology with queer love and the immigrant experience with stunning prose."

A generation later, Mother is in California with her own family and is struggling to pay their bills with a variety of jobs. Mother left the violence of Ama behind only to marry another man from the mainland and suffers further abuse at his hands. He eventually leaves the family and falls short of supporting them. One day, Daughter and her brother dig holes in their backyard that lies on top of a previous landfill, and Mother furiously beats her for doing this. She only stops when Daughter calls her “Ama,” and the realization of her actions set in. The next day, Daughter wakes up with the tail of a tiger growing out of a scab on her lower back.

A central myth that Chang centralizes in her story is about Hu Gu Po, a tiger spirit that harbors a woman’s body and hungers for children’s toes. Chang’s myths expand from boys flying with wings to escape their abusive father to an aunt whose touch turns everything blood red. Daughter falls in love with a girl from the neighborhood who feeds her tail to the holes in the yard. From the holes, letters appear from Ama. Daughter and her lover work to translate the letters and are astounded by the content. They divulge the family’s history and their past in Taiwan that led them to come to America. Daughter learns of new revelations and hidden secrets about the family she once thought she knew.

BESTIARY is a one-of-a-kind coming-of-age story. From one generation to the next, Chang masterfully illustrates a cycle of abuse. The weight of each family member’s choices and the pain that accompanies them are present on each character as they struggle to navigate their own paths. The novel blends mythology with queer love and the immigrant experience with stunning prose. Her writing is surprising and assertive, flowing seamlessly on the page.