Book Description
"Hu Anyan’s I Deliver Parcels in Beijing, translated by Jack Hargreaves, offers an unvarnished dispatch from the front lines of the gig economy, written by a guy who’s held nearly every low-wage, low-reward job on the market (delivery driver, security guard, convenience store clerk, bicycle salesman). The Cinderella bit of it is that now he can add a new title: internationally best-selling author." —Leah Greenblatt, The New York Times Book Review

A runaway bestseller in China, sold in 17+ countries, this delightfully honest and humorous account gives a face and voice to the future of work—as if Nomadland met Nickel and Dimed.

In 2023, I Deliver Parcels in Beijing became the literary sensation of the year in China. Hu Anyan’s story, about short-term jobs in various anonymous megacities, hit a nerve with a generation of young people who feel at odds with an ever-growing pressure to perform and succeed.

Hu started posting essays about his experiences online during COVID lockdowns. His recollection of night shifts in a huge logistics center in the south of China went viral: his nights were so hot that he could drink three liters of water without taking a toilet break; his days were spent searching for affordable rooms with proper air-conditioning; and his few moments of leisure were consumed by calculations of the amount of alcohol needed to sleep but not feel drowsy a few hours later.

Hu Anyan tells us about brutal work, where there is no real future in sight. But Hu is armed with deadpan humor and a strong idea of self. He moves on when he feels stuck—from logistics in the south, to parcel delivery in Beijing, to other impossible jobs. Along the way, he turns to reading and writing for strength and companionship.

I Deliver Parcels in Beijing is an honest and startling first-person portrait of Hu Anyan's struggle against the dehumanizing nature of our contemporary global work system—and his discovery of the power of sharing a story.
 
About the Author and Translator
Hu AnYan was born in Guangzhou, China, in 1979. After graduating from secondary school he joined the workforce, moving around between places and odd jobs to make a living: hotel waiter, convenience store clerk, courier, night shift worker and many more. In 2009 he began to post some writing online, and became a full-time writer after an essay went viral during a COVID lockdown.
 
ack Hargreaves is a Chinese-English translator from East Yorkshire, now based in London. Specialising in literary and academic translation, his work has appeared on Asymptote Journal, Words Without Borders, LitHub, adda, Samovar, The Southern Review, and elsewhere. He translated Shen Dacheng’s 沈大成 short story ‘Novelist in the Attic’ 《阁楼小说家》 and Wen Zhen's 文珍 'Date at the Art Gallery' 《我们夜里在美术馆谈恋爱》 for The Book of Shanghai and The Book of Beijing (Comma Press), respectively, and, with Yan Yan, Li Juan’s 李娟 Winter Pasture 《冬牧场》 and Chai Jing’s 柴静 Seeing《看见》(Astra House).