I Live in the Slums is a collection of stories about existing on the fringes. Here, a rat scurries from house to house in the cramped poor quarters, where it encounters the peculiar creatures that live together in the gloom. In the city, a magpie proudly builds its nest and ponders its human neighbors whom it will never fully understand. And in the garden, a neglected willow tree searches for nourishment – it stretches its roots deep into the barren soil.
In this surreal and poetic landscape, identity and reality are constantly being renegotiated. Can Xue creates a place that is both familiar and enigmatic, and which is not only populated by humans.
\"[Can Xue's stories] eat their way in, shake things up, and open one's eyes to what is possible to evoke through imagination, form, and language – and to what is happening in the world. I find it hard to imagine a more urgent literature.\"
Svenska Dagbladet
Format Paperback Scope 368 pages Language Swedish Publisher Albert Bonniers Förlag Publication date 2025-10-08 Contributors Anna Gustafsson Chen Contributors Nina Ulmaja ISBN 9789100806873