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The Four BooksStock informationGeneral Fields
Special Fields
Description"One of China's greatest living authors and fiercest satirists." (Guardian). In the ninety-ninth district of a sprawling labour camp, the Author, Musician, Scholar, Theologian and Technician - and hundreds just like them - are undergoing Re-education, to restore their revolutionary zeal and credentials. In charge of this process is the Child, who delights in draconian rules, monitoring behaviour and confiscating treasured books. But when bad weather arrives, followed by the 'three bitter years', the intellectuals are abandoned by the regime and left on their own to survive. Divided into four narratives, the Four Books tells the story of the Great Famine, one of China's most devastating and controversial periods. This book was the winner of The Franz Kafka Prize 2014. Promotion infoOne of China's most important novelists tackles the country's great remaining taboo -- the Great Famine, in which at least 45 million died AwardsLong-listed for Man Booker Prize for Fiction 2016. Reviews"Arch and playful... [Yan Lianke] deploys offbeat humour, anarchic set pieces and surreal imagery to shed new light on dark episodes from modern Chinese history... A brave, brilliant novel" -- David Evans Financial Times "It's a Chinese novel hailed across the planet as a masterpiece, and I'm normally the first to resist such an imposition before I've even opened the thing - but for once, the hype doesn't go far enough... a devastating, brilliant slice of living history" -- Kate Saunders The Times "No other writer in today's China has so consistently explored, dissected and mocked the past six and a half decades of Chinese communist rule... it is an extraordinary novel" -- Isobel Hilton Observer "One of the masters of modern Chinese literature" -- Jung Chang "Stark, powerful and compelling... A privilege" Independent |