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	Liepman Literary Agency Marc Koralnik

THE SECRET TALKER

Geling Yan

A woman reclaims her own story in this taut and wholly original tale from one of China's literary superstars.

Hongmei is the perfect Chinese wife: beautiful, diligent, passive. Glen is the perfect American husband: intelligent, caring, well-off. From the outside, Hongmei and Glen's life in the San Francisco Bay Area seems perfect. But at home, their marriage is falling apart. Post-its left on the fridge are their primary form of communication.

When Hongmei receives a beguiling email from a secret admirer, naturally she's intrigued. But what starts out as harmless flirting with an internet stranger quickly turns into an all-consuming emotional affair. As Hongmei spills more and more about her dark past as a military intelligence officer-in-training in China, she falls deeper and deeper into a tense cat-and-mouse game. Desperate and self-destructive, she embarks on an investigation into her emailer's secret history one that may tear her life and marriage apart forever.

A psychological story at its core, The Secret Talker elegantly examines how repressed desire and simmering silence can upend even the most idyllic marriage. As Hongmei pursues her stalker, her identity and agency come into question, and the chase curveballs into a captivating journey of self-actualization. Yan Geling pierces the human psyche to reveal devastating and emotional truths and an ending that will leave readers speechless.

Geling Yan is one of the most acclaimed contemporary novelists and screenwriters writing in the Chinese language today. Born in Shanghai, she served with the People's Liberation Army (PLA), starting at age twelve as a dancer in an entertainment troupe. She is the author of numerous novels, short stories, novellas, essays, and scripts. Yan is fluent in English and her best-known novels in the West are The Banquet Bug (published in the UK as The Uninvited) and The Lost Daughter of Happiness (translated by Cathy Silber), as well as the novella and short story collection White Snake and Other Stories (translated by Lawrence A. Walker). She lives in Berlin, Germany.

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Book Published 2023-05-11 by San Min Books

Comments

Yan has teamed up with Italian director and producer Cristiano Bortone to work on the film version, though production hasn't started yet due to COVID-19. https://variety.com/2018/film/news/cristiano-bortone-direct-yan-geling-the-secret-talker-1202805605/

HarperVia Here's what Tara says about the book: "Geling Yan is one of China's literary superstars, an award-winning novelist and screenwriter who has worked with Ang Lee and Joan Chen. But I didn't know that when I dove into The Secret Talker for the first time. Instead, I was gripped by the way that the book blurs the lines of genres that I thought I knew so well. "Domestic suspense meets literary fiction in this tense and psychological story of a woman at a crossroads in her life. On the outside, Hongmei and Glen seem like they have an idyllic life. She is the perfect Chinese wife and he is the perfect American husband. But, of course, no one is perfect. At home their marriage is falling apart; the two barely talk and mainly communicate through Post-its left on their fridge. So when Hongmei receives a titillating email from a secret admirer who knows far too much about her past, what starts out as harmless flirting with an internet stranger turns into a dangerous emotional affair. But be warned: this book is much more nuanced than the typical domestic suspense; it examines how repressed desire and simmering silence can upend even the most loving marriage, all while tackling issues of political repression and upturning the submissive 'Asian wife' trope. "After tearing through the pages, it made complete sense to me why Geling is so famed in both the book and screen worlds of the Far East. Her pages are visual, giving readers a virtual window into a marriage, a culture, and a history, all while keeping us riveted by the burning question: Who is Hongmei's secret talker?"