"The Paper Menagerie" by Ken Liu

LeVar Burton Reads

Stitcher

Arts, Performing Arts

4.9 • 17K Ratings

🗓️ 29 August 2017

⏱️ 50 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

An immigrant mother tries to bond with her American-born son by creating a magical paper menagerie. This story appears in Ken Liu's collection THE PAPER MENAGERIE AND OTHER STORIES, available now from Saga Press. Thanks to our presenting sponsor Audible. Start your free trial and get a free audiobook at audible.com/levar.

Transcript

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0:00.0	I'm Lovar Burton and this is Lovar Burton Reads.
0:10.1	It's where every episode I hand-pick a different piece of short fiction and I read it to.
0:15.0	The only thing that these stories have in common is that I love them and I hope you will
0:20.5	too.
0:23.3	Today's story, y'all, is from the award-winning science fiction and fantasy author, Ken
0:28.9	Lu and the story is called the Paper Managerie.
0:32.7	It's from his collection of short fiction, the Paper Managerie and other stories from
0:36.7	saga press.
0:38.4	The Paper Managerie has won the Hugo, the Nebula, the World Fantasy Award.
0:45.5	Ken Lu himself is a very multi-talented person.
0:50.7	He's not only an author, he translates a lot of other people's works from the Chinese
0:56.3	into English.
0:57.7	He's a lawyer, he programs, he's a coder.
1:03.1	He writes all kinds of speculative fiction from hard sci-fi to fantasy but this story is pure
1:12.2	magic.
1:14.1	There are elements of childlike wonder and imagination made real in the Paper Managerie and I want
1:20.8	you to think about how an ordinary object can take on a life.
1:25.8	In this case, it's an ordinary sheet of paper that is skillfully manipulated and takes
1:31.6	on another form.
1:34.1	Our story today is told from the perspective of a Chinese American man who's looking back
1:38.5	on his childhood and it's impressive that Ken Lu does not shortchange the feelings or
1:43.9	the complexity that come with being a child or that come with being an adult looking back
	...

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