Author and Illustrator: Nie Jun
Translator: Edward Gauvin (English) / Zhao Qingyuan and Nicolas Grivel (French)
Publisher: Lerner Publishing Group
Genre: Fantasy, Adventure
Age Recommendation: 12+ (Lerner)
In this poetic adventure across medieval China, roguish bands of “seekers” chase a plantlike treasure that may lead to fortune and even eternal life. Acclaimed artist and storyteller Nie Jun (My Beijing: Four Stories of Everyday Wonder) presents an environmental fantasy rich with mystery, betrayal, and an adorable baby deity.
Lerner Books
Content Warnings:
Depicted: Violence, Death, Beheading
Mentioned: Death of a Parent, Grief, Blood
Tags:
Chinese Mythology, Found Family, Brotherly Conflict, Ink Painting Like Design
Review
~ Received as an ARC from NetGalley and Lerner Publishing Group ~
Seekers of the Aweto is a beautiful watercolour illustrated story of two brothers who slowly begin to drift apart as they realise their own goals and morals don’t match.
Seekers of Aweto is the story of the brothers, Xinyue and Qilu, and their mother, Bu Ren Niang, who travel from town to town hunting aweto. This rare medicinal plant grows on a chadolo - a guardian spirit-like plant creature. In their travels, they arrive at the Sanamo tribe in their travels, a matriarchal tribe of warriors and farmers. And in the process of stealing the aweto from their chadolo, a young chadolo attaches itself to the youngest brother Xinyue. A young chadolo that happens to be the celestial aweto an even rarer version of aweto that grants eternal life. As Xinyue begins to care for the young chadolo, he begins to doubt whether what his family is doing is right.
The narrative's heart is a beautiful found family relationship, especially between the brothers Xinyue and Qilu. That is put under pressure by the brothers’ secrets and desires. Xinyue slowly realises that maybe his family’s job hurts people, including the chadolo they hunt. At the same time, Qilu sinks deeper into his obsession over the Celestial Aweto.
They are pursued by Ashmi of the Sanamo village, whose chadolo is killed by the brothers in pursuit of its aweto. Without the chadolo’s protection, her village will fall to ruin within two years. And she hopes that returning the stolen chadolo child to their lands will restore the prosperity of her village.
Aweto’s cast is filled with wonderfully rich characters. Each pursues their own motivations and grows and falls into obsession as the story progresses. They are brought to life in a wonderfully rich watercolour art style that invokes the style of Chinese ink paintings. Nie Jun also masterfully pushes the background and foreground by using blues to define the areas of the panels that he wants your eyes to look at.
I don’t really comment on translations that much as it is something I don’t tend to notice. But I noticed that the English edition’s copyright page constantly references the French edition. The exact credit is:
English-language translation by Edward Gauvin, with reference to the French translation and the original Chinese text
Implying that the English edition was translated from the French rather than from the original Chinese. This is disappointing. Translators often have to navigate the difficult balance between making sure that the translation accurately reflects the original text and being understood by the intended audience. When you translate on top of a translation, you introduce more room for errors and misinterpretations of the text. While there was nothing that stuck out to me, I hope Lerner Publishing will seek out the original work for translation rather than licensing another translation. (Also, if this is not the case, I’m also happy to be corrected)
Overall, The Seekers of Aweto’s first volume is a strong, beautiful illustrated piece with a complex brother relationship at its heart. A must-read for fans of fantasy adventure stories.