PRIVATE EYES

Original Publisher: Ink (August 2011) 352pp Material: Chinese manuscript. Sample English translation. Length: 160,000 words (appx. 100,000 words in English) * Winner of the Taipei Book Fair (TIBE) Award for Fiction (2012) * Winner of the China Times Open Book Award (2011) * Asia Weekly Top Ten Chinese Novel of the Year (2011) * Film rights sold to Double Edge Entertainment Winner of almost every major literary award, Chi Wei-Jan's PRIVATE EYES is a publishing sensation in Taiwan in 2011. It is a brilliant literary detective novel in which a failed-academic-turned-sleuth tries to make sense of the absurdity of modern city life, and to prove his innocence in a series of murders. The first ever serial killer in Taiwan? A family scandal that leads to corruptions of the social health insurance system? A Buddhist fanatic who turns to killing people as a way of “salvation”? These are only part of the charm of this hilarious and darkly delicious novel. Wu Cheng, a disillusioned playwright and theatre director, quits his job as a college professor and move to Liuzhangli, a district in Taipei fondly described by him as the "Dead Zone” because funeral business thrives there. It also symbolizes the “arrested modernization” that is Taipei City, an uneasy coexistence between the old and the new. There Wu sets up shop as the first and only private detective in Taiwan. He is not technology-savvy, and he does not take on jobs of stalking unfaithful spouses. His first case is to find out why Mrs. Lin's young daughter has suddenly turned against her husband. It sounds easy enough: either the girl was sexually molested by dad, or she somehow stumbles upon his clandestine affair with another woman. Enlisting the help of a badmouthing and streetwise taxi driver, Wu unearths shocking truth not only about the husband, but also about the very social security system. Just as Wu is about to settle into his new life (and new love interest), he is arrested by the police to answer for a series of murders. Each crime is committed in the very neighborhood where he lives, and his image has been captured by the ever-present security cameras. Obviously Wu hasn't committed the crimes. He has no memory of even talking to these people, but what about his medical history of depression-turned-neurosis? Wasn't he mentally unstable when he jumped onto the table and insulted all his friends in the theatre circle, suffering a nervous breakdown that resulted in his leaving his previous life and turning into a recluse? Wu Chen needs to prove his innocence and find out who is behind the murders. What creates a serial killer? Why has there never been one in Taiwan, until now? What is so different in Taiwan from Japan and the US, where serial killings appear with a startling high frequency? Wu will also need to look deeply into himself, because the murderer is someone who knows him so intimately that he or she is able to assume his likeness to frame him for the crimes. Someone from his dark past. Part detective story and part social satire, PRIVATE EYES is a literary tour-de-force that will have you turning the pages until the very end. It is a meditation on the nature of serial killers and an insightful study of the crime genre, but most of all it is about the anxiety, passion, and craziness of urban life. ABOUT THE AUTHOR Chi Wei-Jan (b.1954) holds a Ph.D. in English Literature of University of Iowa. He is professor of drama and theatre at National Taiwan University. He is a successful playwright and has written and produced many plays, including MIT: MAD IN TAIWAN (2008), THE MAHJONG GAME Trilogy (1997-2007), REEL MURDERS (2005), UTOPIA LTD (2001) and ONE BED, FOUR PLAYERS (1999). He has also published several books of essays including SERIOUSLY PLAYFUL (2004) and MISUNDERSTANDING SHAKESPEARE (2008). PRIVATE EYES is his first novel. It became a bestseller in Taiwan and has gone through five printings in only two months.