The Strangers: Nine Stories by Nine Immigrant Writers Brought Together by One Concept

Purple Pegasus, a California-based independent publishing company that primarily publishes literature with multicultural heritage, presents a short story collection by nine ethnic Chinese writers. The nine stories are strategically arranged in three sections, each led by a quote that epitomizes the feeling of being a stranger in a strange land. The first section includes three stories by Rui Wang, Lily Liu, and Allan Cho respectively. All three stories are about an immigrant's struggle to free themselves from the burden of their past. The theme of this section is highlighted by Rabindranath Tagore's poem: Once we dreamt that we were strangers. We wake up to find that we were dear to each other. The second part, led by a quote from Carson McCullers' The Heart Is a Lonely Hunter, consists of stories contributed by Lily Chu, Jieru Zhou, and Yili. Collectively, they explore the concept of migration as a means of discovering one's self. The final part of the anthology includes three love stories by three female writers--Christina Yao, Ma Lan, and Xiaowen Zeng. Their works echo what Albert Camus wrote in The Stranger: I opened myself to the gentle indifference of the world. Anna Wang Yuan has compiled these stories and has written the foreword. She also asked each author questions about their life and their work, which makes up the unique Q & A sections of this anthology. Anna Wang Yuan is a Chinese Canadian novelist living in California. She is the Chinese translator of Alice Munro's The View from Castle Rock. She considers the publication of The Strangers as an effort to bring the trickles of immigrants' creative writing to the river of contemporary English literature.