Get 3 months for $0.99 a month

LIMITED TIME OFFER
The Paper Menagerie and Other Stories cover art

The Paper Menagerie and Other Stories

Preview
Get this deal Try for $0.00
Offer ends December 16, 2025 11:59pm PT.
Amazon Prime member exclusive: get any 2 titles with your free trial. Terms apply.
Just $0.99/mo for your first 3 months of Audible.
1 audiobook per month of your choice from our unparalleled catalog.
Listen all you want to thousands of included audiobooks, podcasts, and Originals.
Auto-renews at $14.95/mo after 3 months. Cancel anytime.
Pick 1 audiobook a month from our unmatched collection.
Listen all you want to thousands of included audiobooks, Originals, and podcasts.
Premium Plus auto-renews for $14.95/mo + applicable taxes after 30 days. Cancel anytime.

The Paper Menagerie and Other Stories

Written by: Ken Liu
Narrated by: Corey Brill, Joy Osmanski
Get this deal Try for $0.00

$14.95/mo after 3 months. Cancel anytime. Offers ends December 16, 2025 11:59pm PT.

$14.95 a month after 30 days. Cancel anytime.

Buy Now for $29.64

Buy Now for $29.64

About this listen

Featured in the Netflix series Love, Death & Robots

Bestselling author Ken Liu selects his multiple award-winning stories for a groundbreaking collection—including a brand-new piece exclusive to this volume.

With his debut novel, The Grace of Kings, taking the literary world by storm, Ken Liu now shares his finest short fiction in The Paper Menagerie and Other Stories. This mesmerizing collection features many of Ken’s award-winning and award-finalist stories, including: “The Man Who Ended History: A Documentary” (Finalist for the Hugo, Nebula, and Theodore Sturgeon Awards), “Mono No Aware” (Hugo Award winner), “The Waves” (Nebula Award finalist), “The Bookmaking Habits of Select Species” (Nebula and Sturgeon Award finalists), “All the Flavors” (Nebula Award finalist), “The Litigation Master and the Monkey King” (Nebula Award finalist), and the most awarded story in the genre’s history, “The Paper Menagerie” (The only story to win the Hugo, Nebula, and World Fantasy awards).

Insightful and stunning stories that plumb the struggle against history and betrayal of relationships in pivotal moments, this collection showcases one of our greatest and original voices.
Anthologies & Short Stories Asian Creators Fantasy Fiction Genre Fiction Literary Fiction Science Fiction Short Story Royalty China Imperial Japan

What the critics say

"I know this is going to sound hyperbolic, but when I’m reading Ken Liu’s stories, I feel like I’m reading a once-in-a-generation talent. I’m in awe." (Jamie Ford, New York Times bestselling author of Hotel on the Corner of Bitter and Sweet)
Questions of identity galvanize the 15 stories in this outstanding collection of fantastical fiction, giving them extraordinary gravity and resonance. In "Good Hunting," the human companion of a supernatural creature from Chinese folklore contrives an ingenious way to help her adapt to a steampunk future. The title tale (which swept the Hugo, Nebula, and World Fantasy Awards), in which a mother expresses love for her son through the magically animated origami animals she creates, is one of several in which the author uses Chinese-American experience to explore how all individuals assimilate into society. Whether writing about Asian culture and history, as in "The Literomancer" and "All the Flavors," or extraterrestrial civilizations, as in "The Bookmaking Habits of Select Species" and "An Advanced Reader's Picture Book of Comparative Cognition," Liu (The Grace of Kings) universalizes the experiences of his characters, who realize at some point, as the protagonist of "Mono No Aware" does, that "we are defined by the places that we hold in the web of others' lives." Gracefully written and often profoundly moving, these stories are high-water marks of contemporary speculative fiction. (Mar.) (Publishers Weekly, STARRED REVIEW)
These remarkable stories highlight Liu’s themes of family, love, and politics and gathered in one collection pack an even bigger punch. Those who revere shorter speculative works will definitely want this book. (*STARRED REVIEW, Library Journal)
Emotionally unpredictable, Liu's stories take off in unexpected directions and arrive at destinations both startling and satisfying. (Shelf Awareness, *STARRED REVIEW)
Liu’s wondrous tales eloquently explore the place where ordinary and the extraordinary meet. (The Washington Post)
There is a dark and sometimes shocking edge to some of these stories, but nearly all are provocative, and several are brilliant. (The Chicago Tribune)
Liu's book compiles brilliant stories written in several different, overlapping modes, a technically dazzling collection of compulsively readable narratives, presenting characters with agonizing moral dilemmas and never forgetting the heart. (The Journal Sentinel (Milwaukee))
Liu’s talent in evoking atmosphere and culture make these tales more than stories – they’re journeys. If you’re looking to dream of another world, or reflect on our own, do yourself a favor and pick up a copy of The Paper Menagerie. (Muggle.net)
All stars
Most Relevant
First experience with Ken Liu, but looking forward to more from him.

The narration felt dry at a few places, but some of the stories were incredible.

A new style of writing

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.

Great book on the whole - content warning for torture and rape. worth the read.

Great book - content warning for torture and rape

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.

I was absolutely blown away by this collection of short stories. the themes and concepts explored in this book were fascinating, beautiful, devastating and forced the reader to consider some serious hypotheticals. Not every story is a 10 out of 10 but the ones which are will stay with you.

fantastic read

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.

Ken Liu's writing and imagination are unparalleled. The writing lags a bit when he gets too overtly political, bit you will be transformed by this book. I had to skip some of the more graphic violence of torture, rape, etc., but he does not add it gratuitously. He speaks hard truths.

Brilliant writing but not for the faint of heart

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.