Reading order
| # | Title | Published | Author | Buy on Amazon |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | The Story of Gilgamesh | 2011 | Yiyun Li | Buy |
| 2 | A Sheltered Woman | 2014 | Yiyun Li | Buy |
Yiyun Li’s shorter fiction includes The Story of Gilgamesh (2011), a retelling of the ancient Mesopotamian epic, and A Sheltered Woman (2014). Both works reflect Li’s interest in stories about connection and loss across cultures and centuries.
The Story of Gilgamesh takes on one of the oldest surviving literary texts and filters it through Li’s spare, precise style. It is a compact retelling rather than a full novel, making it an accessible entry point for readers curious about her work. A Sheltered Woman, published three years later, returns to more contemporary ground with a story about emotional isolation.
Li is known for writing about people caught between cultures, and these two shorter works are no exception. They pair well with her longer story collections like A Thousand Years of Good Prayers, though each stands on its own as a finished piece.