[Pre-Order] Masters of Sleep and Other Stories

now available for pre-order * forthcoming in July

About

Masters of Sleep is an anthology featuring some of Zhu’s most cerebral and critically acclaimed stories, selected and translated from three of his Chinese story collections: The Bleary-Eyed Traveler (2006), Masters of Sleep (2010), and Chaos of Fiction (2015). Blending the surreal with the philosophical, these stories unfold in imagined premises that nevertheless retain recognizable social and emotional realities.

The collection is divided into three sections: “Enigmas,” “Quandaries,” and “Fables.”

In “Enigmas,” most of the characters partake in mysterious missions and eccentric obsessions. For example, since her birth, Miss Margaret’s parents have maintained a museum dedicated to collecting every trace of her physical existence: her hair, nails, bodily fluids, and so on (“The Private Museum of Miss Margaret”). “Masters of Sleep,” the title story, adopts the form of a biographical encyclopedia to recount the lives of several sleep masters who publicly performed the act of falling asleep under impossible and dangerous circumstances, including sleeping inside a tiger cage. Many of the characters in this section have Western names and come from Europe or the United States; many of the stories are also explicitly set in Europe or the United States.

In the second section, “Quandaries,” most of the characters find themselves in situations defined by danger, contradiction, or personal limitation. Set in an imaginary Wild West, one protagonist produces gold by digging into his own body, only to become the target of a violent gang (“Gold”). “Takasikou Aisyusei” and “Koyata Fukao’s Spearplay” are the only two stories set in an imaginary Japan. Both protagonists are aspiring warriors with their own problems to solve. Aisyusei, though skilled in swordplay, is unable to compete because he cannot kill. Fukao excels in swordplay, but he is troubled by his reputation as “Koyata the Runner,” as he must use footwork to save himself in most duels. To rid himself of the shameful nickname, he turns to spearplay, a discipline for which he proves to have no talent, and this choice nearly leads to his death.

The final section, “Fables,” draws on the tradition of allegory. “My Poor Girlfriend” and “Leaving Home” are two of the three stories set in China (the third being “Running” in the first section). “My Poor Girlfriend” depicts a dystopian society in which a run-down hospital replaces the protagonist’s girlfriend’s body parts with ordinary household objects after surgery. Her fingers are now wheat noodles, and her upper and lower body are attached by a paper clip. Despite this, her devoted boyfriend still tries to help her retain a sense of hope. “Leaving Home” follows a young man who has dreamt of escaping his rural hometown since childhood. When he finally does, however, he finds himself utterly alone on an alien planet, waiting endlessly for others to come join him.

Across the stories, Zhu Yue playfully interrogates many so-called “Western” ideals and values: To what extent is a person’s physical existence a sufficient expression of their individuality? What is the value of invention if it has no practical use? And how much of ourselves are we willing to sacrifice for wealth and greatness? 

About the Author

Zhu Yue was born in 1977 in Beijing and began writing fiction in 2004. Influenced by Ludwig Wittgenstein and Richard Brautigan, he is widely known for his experimental and surreal style, often crafting stories that contain seemingly infinite worlds and possibilities. In a literary culture where most established writers belong to state-sponsored Writers' Associations, Zhu remains a rare outsider, receiving no institutional support or recognition. Despite this, his work has attracted a cult following in China. Trained as a lawyer and later an editor, he is also a published philosophy scholar. To date, he has published five story collections: The Bleary-Eyed Traveler (2006), Masters of Sleep (2010), Chaos of Fiction (2015), Running Wild (2021), and The Sea of Imagination (2024).

About the Translators 

Jianan Qian is a bilingual writer from Shanghai, China. In Chinese, she has published four original works and translated several iconic authors including Shirley Jackson. In English, her works have appeared in Granta, Guernica, The Los Angeles Times, and elsewhere. She teaches creative writing at Towson University in Maryland.

Alyssa Asquith is a writer from Massachusetts. Her stories have appeared in The Adroit Journal, X-R-A-Y, HAD, Atticus Review, Okay Donkey, and elsewhere. She has an MFA from the Iowa Writers' Workshop.

Praises

Zhu Yue thinks like a sage, and writes like a brat.  

The Shanghai Review of Books

Zhu Yue’s stories may feel like pure imagination, almost detached from reality. Yet, sometimes, reality may indeed shadow his stories. Recently, a news article described our contemporary society as being haunted by an odd ghost, a ghost that goes by many names: exhaustion, depression, burnout…Perhaps we lack nothing except sleep. We are so tired that we could fall asleep at any moment. Reading that article immediately reminded me of Masters of Sleep.

Beijing News 

What a wonderful introduction to such a witty, expansive writer. I will be returning to these stories.

Aimee Bender, author of The Butterfly Lampshade

For readers who value not only stories that no one else has ever written but stories that no one else has ever thought to write, Zhu Yue counts as a major discovery. One of this collection’s lovely, surreal, wickedly funny stories describes the hostility that erupts between two schools of a particular art form—stacking. The first school of stacking strives for abundance and magnificence; the second, for purity and delicacy. Somehow, miraculously, Zhu’s writing manages to participate in both these schools at once. Each of his stories, you sense, is just one among countless tiny flourishing little perfectly colored word-objects. I think of Zhu Yue as a member of one of my favorite informal literary collectives, that international body of practitioners who specialize in microfictional strangeness, and whose number includes Gonçalo M. Tavares (Portugal), Adam Ehrlich Sachs (America), Ana Maria Shua (Argentina), Alex Epstein (Israel), and Hervé Le Tellier (France).

Here’s a sample sentence, borrowed from his flash suite “A Diagram of the Two Sexes,” that might serve as a sort of litmus test: “The daughter of a truck, for instance, cannot marry a young man who will become a drawer, as drawers are genetically incompatible with automobiles.” Quite simply, if you read a sentence such as this and it brings you pleasure, then Masters of Sleep is the book for you.

Kevin Brockmeier, author of The Ghost Variations

The ideal confection for anyone who thinks Chinese literature is limited to peasant sagas, proletarian fiction, and investigations of nationalism and communism, Masters of Sleep is a book of goofy, often mischievous philosophical inventions. While Zhu Yue is undoubtedly an heir of Borges, for him modernity poses less uncanny horror than, as it did for Raymond Roussel, Flann O’Brien, and Calvino, an opportunity for the sugar high of playful abstraction. The fanciful thrillpower of this book is perfect for anyone who has been furiously bored while reading realist literature.

Ken Chen, author of Juvenilia

Mind-bendingly whimsical and profoundly satirical, Zhu Yue’s stories are at once sharp, eccentric and radical. His writing radiates with cosmopolitan wit while remaining deeply rooted in its own narrative tradition. An unmissable voice from China. 

Yan Ge, author of Elsewhere

Masters of Sleep, a dazzling collection of stories by Zhu Yue, is a cabinet of paradoxes where invention outpaces utility and dreamers gamble with reality. Richly imaginative yet piercingly humane, Masters of Sleep is a book about creating something out of nothing: a suite of fictions that awakens intellectual delight, emotional daring, and a liberating sense of what stories—and we—can be.

Matthias Göritz, author of Colonies of Paradise

What a treat for the reader!

Nicky Harman, translator of Diablo's Boys, co-founder of Paper Republic

Copyright 

Text copyright ©2026 by Zhu Yue

Translation copyright ©2026 by Jianan Qian and Alyssa Asquith

All rights reserved.

Thank you for buying an authorized edition of this book and for complying with copyright laws by not reproducing, scanning, or distributing any part of it in any form without permission.

ISBN: 979-8-9864753-5-6

Editing by Na Zhong and David Brunson
Front cover illustration by Jianan Qian
Book design by Jingyi He

First edition: 2026

Accent Edition
New York, NY 10003