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Sunbirth
- Author
- An Yu
- Narrator
- Mei Mei MacLeod
- Publisher
- Random House
- Publish Date
- 10 July 2025
- Run Time
- 8 hours 5 minutes
- Format
- Audiobook
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What to expect
Brought to you by Penguin.
Since her father’s death twelve years previously, our unnamed narrator, a pharmacist, has been living with her older sister Dong Ji in Five Poems Lake on the edge of the desert. The sun over their isolated town has begun to disappear in crescents, like a gibbous moon. These increments are reported on the evening news, while the temperature drops, the lake freezes over, and the trees start to die. One night, as the narrator returns from visiting a friend in hospital, she is accosted by a man who tries to assault her – but who transforms before her eyes into a Beacon, with a searing, blinding light where his head used to be. A few nights later more Beacons are caught on film. Where do they come from? What has caused them? Do they have something to do with the vanishing of the sun? An Yu explores questions of mortality, desire and longing in this hugely atmospheric and beautiful novel, while diving deep into the relationship between the two sisters – their love for each other, the weight of responsibility and dependency, and their desire to be free.
© An Yu 2025 (P) Penguin Audio 2025
Critics Review
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Evocative... vibrant despite a mounting sense of loss... thrilling and unexpected
New York Times
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An arresting story . . . Confirms Yu’s mastery of the mesmerizing and strange
Publishers Weekly
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Yu’s new book abounds with evocative images and haunting moral choices
Reactor Magazine
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Enthralling and surreal . . . an illuminating novel about what people choose to preserve at the end of the world
Foreword Magazine
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Dizzying . . expertly deploying speculative elements to examine identity, grief and existential longing with sublime emotional impact . . . richly atmospheric . . . Sunbirth is a surreal masterpiece to ponder with pleasure
BookPage
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Offers elements of magical realism and explores themes of sisterhood and grief while it unfolds an unusual premise . . . Yu excels at creating the setting, described in precise detail, and at crafting a character-driven reading experience
Library Journal
User Reviews
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Details
- Author
- An Yu
- Narrator
- Mei Mei MacLeod
- Duration
- 8 hours 5 minutes
- Release Date
- 10 July 2025
- ISBN
- 9781529963397
- Format
- Audiobook
- Publisher
- Random House
- Genre
- Modern and contemporary fiction: literary and general, Speculative fiction, Narrative theme: environmental issues / the natural world, Narrative theme: love / relationships, Climate change, Science fiction: apocalyptic and post-apocalyptic
Synopsis
Brought to you by Penguin. Since her father’s death twelve years previously, our unnamed narrator, a pharmacist, has been living with her older sister Dong Ji in Five Poems Lake on the edge of the desert. The sun over their isolated town has begun to disappear in crescents, like a gibbous moon. These increments are reported on the evening news, while the temperature drops, the lake freezes over, and the trees start to die. One night, as the narrator returns from visiting a friend in hospital, she is accosted by a man who tries to assault her – but who transforms before her eyes into a Beacon, with a searing, blinding light where his head used to be. A few nights later more Beacons are caught on film. Where do they come from? What has caused them? Do they have something to do with the vanishing of the sun? An Yu explores questions of mortality, desire and longing in this hugely atmospheric and beautiful novel, while diving deep into the relationship between the two sisters – their love for each other, the weight of responsibility and dependency, and their desire to be free.© An Yu 2025 (P) Penguin Audio 2025
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