I Deliver Parcels in Beijing - On Making a Living

A runaway bestseller in China, I Deliver Parcels in Beijing is about what it''s like to try and make a living - and stay sane - in the gig economy. From the pecking order on a parcel-sorting factory floor to the perfect alcohol dose to get some daylight shut-eye before a punishing night shift, from the Kafkaesque bureaucracy of the hiring departments to the ideal layout of a delivery route, Hu illuminates the hidden lives behind the roles that keep our world going. But he also shows how, through the liberating power of literature, he finds solace, and even freedom in his existence. Quietly radical, brimming with humanity and humour, this book asks: what does work really mean? What should it mean? And do any of us really know how to live?

Product details

• Authors: Hu AnYan
• Assisted by: Hargreaves Jack (Translation)
• Publisher: Allen Lane
• Languages: English
• Product format: Hardback
• Released: 04.09.2025
• EAN: 9780241733820
• ISBN: 978-0-241-73382-0
• No. of pages: 336
• Dimensions: 142 mm x 225 mm x 31 mm
• Subjects: Fiction > Narrative literature > Letters, diaries; China, Memoirs, SOCIAL SCIENCE / Sociology / Urban, SOCIAL SCIENCE / Essays, Literary essays, Social classes, Urban communities, BIOGRAPHY & AUTOBIOGRAPHY / Memoirs, BIOGRAPHY & AUTOBIOGRAPHY / Asian & Asian American