Sun Yisheng is a newcomer to the literary world and is acclaimed by some critics as, "one of the best new novelists in China". Zou Hong / China Daily

In just two years, Sun Yi-sheng has been a chemistry major, factory guard, pesticide chemist and writer.

The 26-year-old says he discovered writing to be his calling after intense disappointment with everything else he'd done in life and long hours invested in self-studying literature.

Related: Words for the world

Sun's crime story, The Shades Who Periscope Through Flowers to the Sky, will appear in the December issue of the Chicago-based online-magazine Words Without Borders, which introduces international literature to English-language readers. His novel was the only Chinese selection.

The magazine's editorial director Susan Harris tells China Daily by e-mail that she was hooked by the story's "gradual buildup of suspense and twist at the end". She's also impressed by Sun's unusual approach to familiar scenes.

In the last few months, Sun's short stories have appeared in China's heavyweight literary publications, such as Chutzpah Magazine and Shanghai Literature.

Beijing-based publisher Tiehulu Books editor and novelist A Yi calls Sun "one of the few best new novelists in China".

Chutzpah's editor-in-chief Ou Ning says he "liked the youngster very much" while hosting a session with Sun and two other young aspiring writers in early September.

Sun says his life before September 2010 was a blur. He was born and raised in a small town in Shandong province. He attended a mediocre school and college. He let his college years pass without much thought about the future, he says.

But Sun decided to have an adventure in a truly international city that autumn - a move that equates to an outlook makeover, in retrospect.

He went to Shanghai, where he spent half a year cleaning and repairing the Hilton Hotel's lobby.

"Reality is so different from what you expect," Sun says.

"I was so lost."