Description
Book SynopsisLONGLISTED FOR THE MAN BOOKER INTERNATIONAL 2017
With the Yi River on one side and the Balou Mountains on the other, the village of Explosion was founded a thousand years ago by refugees fleeing a volcanic eruption. But in the post-Mao era, the name takes on a new significance as the rural community grows explosively from a small village to a town to a city to a vast megalopolis.
Behind this rapid expansion are three rival clans linked together by a web of ambition, madness and greed. Together they transform their hometown into a Babylon of modern times -- an unrivalled urban superpower built on lies, sex and thievery.
'One of the masters of modern Chinese literature' Jung Chang
Trade ReviewCharting the transformation of a rural village into a 21st- century megalopolis, it is
a boisterously inventive novel that conveys the everyday reality of modern China -- David Mills * Sunday Times Books of the Year *
As much a parody of communist rule in China as a devastating critique of capitalist excess, power, greed and self-destruction, Yan’s novel is
nothing short of a masterpiece -- Claire Kohda Hazelton * Observer *
Extraordinary... A provocatively illuminating and perceptive insight into contemporary China -- David Mills * The Sunday Times *
A
hyper-real tour de force, a blistering condemnation of political corruption and excess masquerading as absurdist saga -- Catherine Taylor * Financial Times *
A rip-roaring Swiftian satire from a contemporary Chinese master... Yan Lianke, one of China's most forthright and versatile novelists, enlists extravagant comedy and far-fetched fable to propel his critique of a society where "power and money have colluded to steal people's souls" * The Economist *
