Benson and Bennie
January 17th, 2023

It has been five years since Kevin Chong wrote his last novel, The Plague (Arsenal Pulp, 2018) inspired by Albert Camus’ classic of the same title. In The Double Life of Benson Yu (Atria Books $27), the narrator of the story, Benson Yu, is trying to write a story set in 1980s Chinatown about a twelve-year-old boy, Bennie, living with his grandmother. Bennie gets taken in by an eccentric neighbour named Constantine when his grandmother is suddenly hospitalized. But Yu, a bestselling comic book creator can’t help interjecting himself into Bennie’s story from the present day. Things get dark as Yu reveals his own past demons. 9781668005491
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