Year of the Goose: A Novel - Tapa blanda

One of the BBC's 10 Books to Read in December 2015 "Hallman, who is based in Beijing, captures China's era of the instant tycoon with biting satire." --Jane Ciabattari, BBC "Acidic and slapstick, Year of the Goose is a satire as sharp as a gleaming beak or a pair of beady black eyes." --LitReactor One of Men's Journal's 7 Books to Read in December 2015 "Hallman's debut novel is a scathing satire of tycoon culture and political corruption, set in present-day China...As the body count rises, morbid humor abounds." --Publishers Weekly "The Year of the Goose is a completely fresh and original comic novel overflowing with mayhem, sly and mordant humor, blood-thirsty slapstick, corporate malfeasance, hair extentions, Watermelon Wigglers, an enlightened turtle and a malevolent goose. It is an unhinged and utter delight." -- Mark Haskell Smith, author of Raw: A Love Story and Naked at Lunch "A sharp and funny debut book about China's tycoon culture, brimming with wild life; fans of Mo Yan will see his spark in Hallman's fire." -- Amelia Gray, author of Gutshot "Year of the Goose is outrageous, deranged, and hilarious -- a rollicking send up of late Chinese capitalism, it's also, like all great satire, deeply felt and disturbing. Somewhere, between all the laughing and the whimsy, between the vicious goose and the wise turtle, I kept catching glimpses of the hidden horrors, the consequences of our runaway appetites, our steely obsessions." --Peter Mountford, author of The Dismal Science "It is hard for fiction to match the craziness, energy, contradiction, and exciting implausibility of modern China. Year of the Goose does that and more, with a plot and characters more excitingly implausible than the real-world originals and also much more entertaining. This is an absurdist comedy with some sharp and serious social observations." -- James Fallows, The Atlantic, author of China Airborne "Year of the Goose is the book that delivers laughs--irreverent, a little bit mean, morbid and happily cutting, before it slyly pulls the laughter out of our throats. Damn. A muffled sob before we know what's come over us. But just as soon, another sensation: true levity. This absurdist satire is chameleonic. It goes deeper as it becomes lighter." --Melissa Holbrook Pierson, Electric Literature "Hallman's work employs artful paradoxes stacked atop each other like perfect snack cakes, and happens upon some touching realizations about how children don't choose their own lives. In this insane romp through the author's imagination, nobody emerges unscathed." - Heather Scott Partington, Las Vegas Weekly

As China's economy booms, so do its corporations, but none are as successful as the Bashful Goose Snack Company. Founded by Papa Hui, the company is a national treasure, as is his inspiration and beloved pet: the goose. Papa Hui's daughter, Kelly, isn't quite as adored, but she has a new and exciting post in her dad's company: head of the corporate responsibility department. There she is tasked with helping solve the obesity problem plaguing the country's children. Kelly founds a "fat camp," where a series of gruesome accidents take place. While Kelly fears for her job, the government views the project as a success -- the province is no longer the nation's leader in childhood obesity. Kelly returns to the city where she meets hair tycoon Wang Xilai, and we are introduced to the grotesque life of a modern day Gatsby. When Papa Hui is brutally murdered, chaos ensues. Wang Xilai's muse Lulu flees to a hipster idyll, and she is soon joined at the oasis for millionaires by an insane Wang and desperate Kelly. Out of the absurdist satirical tradition of Mo Yan comes a hard-hitting yet whimsical portrayal of China's new "tycoon culture."