Celebrate the release of Chlorine with author Jade Song, in conversation with Yan Ge!

Chlorine: A Novel

In the vein of The Pisces and The Vegetarian, Chlorine is a debut novel that blurs the line between a literary coming-of-age narrative and a dark unsettling horror tale, told from an adult perspective on the trials and tribulations of growing up in a society that puts pressure on young women and their bodies… a powerful, relevant novel of immigration, sapphic longing, and fierce, defiant becoming.

Ren Yu is a swimmer. Her daily life starts and ends with the pool. Her teammates are her only friends. Her coach, her guiding light. If she swims well enough, she will be scouted, get a scholarship, go to a good school. Her parents will love her. Her coach will be kind to her. She will have a good life.

But these are human concerns. These are the concerns of those confined to land, those with legs. Ren grew up on stories of creatures of the deep, of the oceans and the rivers. Ones that called sailors to their doom. Ones that dragged them down and drowned them. Ones that feasted on their flesh. Ones of the creature that she’s always longed to become: mermaid.

Ren aches to be in the water. She dreams of the scent of chlorine—the feel of it on her skin. And she will do anything she can to make a life for herself where she can be free. No matter the pain. No matter what anyone else thinks. No matter how much blood she has to spill.

Jade Song (she/they) is a writer, art director, and artist. Her debut novel Chlorine is forthcoming in 2023 from William Morrow. Her writing has been nominated for numerous "best of" year anthologies and has appeared in Electric Literature, Hobart, Kweli Journal, Waxwing, and elsewhere. Their art direction work has been awarded by and featured in The Shortys, Campaign US, The Smarties, SXSW, Advertising Week, Bustle, and AdAge, among others. She resides in Brooklyn and considers Pittsburgh and Beijing home too. They enjoy cooking tofu, supporting their friends, looking at paintings, and slowly translating Chinese literature.

Yan Ge was born in Sichuan, China in 1984. She is a fiction writer in both Chinese and English. Her first short story collection was published in China when she was seventeen. She is the author of thirteen books, including six novels. She has received numerous awards, including the prestigious Maodun Literature Prize (Best Young Writer). She was named by People’s Literature magazine as one of twenty future literature masters in China. Her work has been translated into English, French and German, among other languages. The English translation of her latest novel The Chilli Bean Paste Clan was published in 2018. Her novel The Strange Beasts of China was published in 2020. Yan Ge started to write in English in 2016. Since then, her writing has been published in the New York Times, The Stinging Fly, the Irish Times, TLS, Stand Magazine, Brick and Being Various: New Irish Short Stories. She was the recipient of the UEA International Award 2018/19. Her debut English-language story collection Elsewhere will be published by Faber (UK) and Scribner (US) in 2023. She lives in Norwich with her husband and son.