China books Archives - Where to Kim?

Most interesting and engaging books of 2022

Kim — Mon, 26 Dec 2022 15:00:00 +0000

What are the best new books in 2022? And how about surprisingly good older gems? A year of reviewing books led me to some very engaging books.

What a year this was!

I read fewer books this year because I spent most of my time taking care of my newborn son. During his first few months, I picked up light books (for me, that’s fantasy and science fiction) that I didn’t review. No wonder the only new book list for 2022 is called stuck in one place.

Many books were either hit or miss this year. More so than in other years. I gave quite a few two star ratings (also to books I didn’t review), but also many four stars. Four stars is a good rating: most of the books I enjoy get four stars. Five stars are reserved for books that fascinate me for whatever reason.

So let’s move on to my 2022 list. Here come the best, most engaging, unique, and inspiring stories of 2022.

Extremes

Guaranteed rereads

Flock Without Birds by Filip Dousek (review): the most intriguing book I read this year. Also one that I somehow can never explain well when recommending it to friends. That’s a good thing right? This book is not for everyone, but if it’s for you then you’ll enjoy it very much.
Vita Nostra by Marina & Sergey Dyachenko (Amazon)- An older book that I picked up because I wanted to read something from Ukraine this year. This is what I want from a book: an absurd and enchanting way of telling a story about a theme that I love.

The opposite

The Golden Enclaves by Naomi Novik (Amazon): I saw this coming when I finished The Last Graduate last year. The end of my magical dream…
Rabbits by Terry Miles (Amazon): A book that came with good reviews but lacked a story.
Klara and the Sun by Kazuo Ishiguro (Amazon): This author is just not right for me. A rather boring book that ended exactly as I predicted at the beginning.
The Midnight Library by Matt Haig (Amazon): Easy to read but oh so cliche. Am I the only one?

Old and new obsessions

Meeting new cultures

Witches by Brenda Lozano (review): The author explores the role of gender and culture in Mexican society through a story about the lives, families, and strengths of a healer (curandera) and a journalist. Loved the content, but was less fond of the writing style.
Where the Language Lives by Janet Yoder (review): Essays about the life’s work of Vi Hilbert who saved the nearly dormant indigenous language Lushootseed. Most readers will regard this ode to the teacher who changed lives as educational (me), but the passion will be lost in paper.

Return to Korea

I Want to Die But I Want to Eat Tteokbokki by Baek Se-hee (review): The bestseller status of this book got me curious. This book is first and foremost a collection of dialogues and essays about the author’s experiences dealing with depression, anxiety, and dysthymia.
Wolves by Jeon Sungtae (review): This short story collection is worth reading because of the author’s good storytelling skills that have been preserved (or perhaps even improved) in the translation. The stories are about change that happens to you and change that you desire.
New Seoul Park Jelly Vendor Massacre by Cho Yeeun (review): A jelly massacre embodying your heart’s desire, how can I not be intrigued?
Endless Blue Sky by Lee Hyoseok (review): The theme and story were a pleasant surprise that created a culture clash for my stereotypical view of literature from that decade.
The Library of Musical Instruments by Kim Junghyuk (review): The stories lack something essential, namely a beat that is in sync with my heartbeat and touches the strings of my heart.
Night Picture of Rain Sound: Seventeen Stories by Sue Ja Joo (review): The seventeen stories in this collection navigate the blurry line between fantasy and reality, witnessing and wit, passion and the symbolic meaning of everything in the world. Some great stories, but not all of them.
Launch Something! by Bae Myung-Hoon (review): I had high expectations for this one. Unfortunately, it wasn’t even close to being as interesting as Tower.

Into Japanese (books)

Life Ceremony by Sayaka Murata (review): Meet a new normal based on a fascination with the use of the human body and the way you care for it.
How Do You Live? by Genzaburō Yoshino (review): The author challenges you to answer this question from both the rooftop and the street, the middle of the city and the ocean.
Core Japanese language learning resources for N3 (link): Have you mastered JLPT N4? Then check out these resources (including books) to conquer N3.
Where to buy Japanese books online from Europe? (link): Ordering books in the original Japanese language can be quite expensive if you live outside of Japan. This blog posts lists the best options for those of you living in Europe.

I want to visit Taiwan and China in a post-apocalyptic(corona) world!

Whisper by Chang Yu-Ko (review): A ghost story with elements of indigenous folklore and Taiwan’s history with the Japanese.
Bad Kids by Zijin Chen (review): A fast-paced and entertaining suspense thriller about the accountability of teenagers.

Close to home

November by Thomas Olde Heuvelt (review): I realize this book has not been translated into English yet, but I know that there or Thomas Olde Heuvelt fans out there eagerly awaiting the translation. For now, please check out HEX and Echo.

Review: Bad Kids by Zijin Chen

Kim — Mon, 04 Jul 2022 14:00:00 +0000

Bad Kids by Zijin Chen is a fast-paced and entertaining suspense thriller about the accountability of teenagers.

Location: Ningbo in China

Bad Kids synopsis

A dark Chinese suspense thriller about teenage accountability, where no one is innocent, for fans of Keigo Higashino and Un-Su Kim.

THE PERFECT CRIME DOESN’T EXIST

One beautiful morning, Zhang Dongsheng pushes his wealthy in-laws off a remote mountain.

It’s the perfect crime. Or so he thinks.

For Zhang did not expect that teenager Chaoyang and his friends would catch him in the act. An opportunity for blackmail presents itself and the kids start down a dark path that will lead to the unravelling of all their lives.

Dark, heart-stopping and violent, Bad Kids is the suspense thriller that has taken China by storm, proving that anyone has what it takes to become a killer.

Book review

 4/5

You think you know where the story is going when you read about the kids witnessing the murder, but then something else happens. (I should elaborate: I almost never read the full synopsis of suspense books hoping to be surprised by the turn of events.) The kids’ actions show how neglect and poor treatment make people do things they wouldn’t normally do. Once you get in too deep, it’s hard to get back on track.

Bad Kids is a fast-paced suspense thriller that reads very smoothly. A novel with humor, despite the situations the kids find themselves in and the less than acceptable actions of the characters in the book. I wouldn’t say the plot is very surprising once you get past a certain point, but it is entertaining to watch it all unfold.

The story is told by multiple narrators, but the point of view changes feel very natural. Although all the narrators are important in conveying what is happening, most of the characters are very stereotypical. There is only one exception, namely a character (who I will not name) who undergoes a well-written character transformation. The “dark” in the synopsis is evident in this person’s state of mind. However, you take this in as a somewhat detached observer: you notice the situation, but do not feel this person’s pain. It is more about the chain of events that introduces the question of accountability.

I should add that the story is set in a place that most English-speaking readers are not very familiar with, which is always a pro in suspense thrillers because it introduces new motives. The TV Show adaptation of Bad Kids is one of China’s highest rated online TV Shows.

The thing about reviewing a suspense thriller is that you can’t say much about the story. So I will end my review by saying that I enjoyed reading this book. I am interested in reading more translated works by this author.

Interested?

Pre-order your copy of Bad Kids from Amazon (available 4 August 2022).

Book details

Title: Bad Kids
Author: Zijin Chen
Translator from Chinese: Michelle Deeter
Language: English
Publisher: Pushkin Press
Pages: 336
ISBN (13): 9781782277620
Publication date: 4 August 2022

About the author and translator

Zijin Chen is a bestselling author of suspense fiction. Celebrated as China’s ‘Keigo Higashino’ by his readers, Zijin Chen’s novel Bad Kids has been adapted for one of 2020’s highest-rating television shows.

Michelle Deeter is a translator based in Manchester, UK. She holds a bachelor’s degree in international relations from Carleton College and a master’s degree in translation and interpreting from Newcastle University. She translates and interprest both technical texts and works of fiction.

Many thanks to Pushkin Press and NetGalley for a digital ARC of this novel in exchange for an honest review.

The post Review: Bad Kids by Zijin Chen appeared first on Where to Kim?.

Most interesting and engaging books of 2021

Kim — Mon, 13 Dec 2021 15:00:00 +0000

What are the best new books in 2021? And how about surprisingly good older gems? A year of reviewing books led me to some very engaging books.

These are my highlights and surprises of 2021. While I haven’t read all books that were published – not even all of the popular ones – I found many engaging books among those that I did read.

A year of reading and reviewing books… I read over 100 books this year and reviewed half of them. Many of the books I read are now on my new book lists about China, Taiwan, Austria, Korean short story collections and Japanese short story collections.

Last year I identified some blindspots, namely books originating from or set in Africa and South America. While my reading activity for these parts of the world have not been overwhelming, I did read a few books from there: When We Cease to Understand the World (writer living in Santiago de Chile), Remote Control (set in Ghana), At Night All Blood is Black (writer from Senegal) and Bakhita (set in Sudan).

Back to 2021. Many of the books I read were released in 2021 or will be released in 2022. But aside from my more recent picks, I also read some classics or other books that are still getting a lot of attention around the world. Some of it deserved, the rest – in my eyes – baffling. That’s what is so great about the vast amount of books that exist in the world: there is a ‘right’ book for everyone.

I see it as my mission to raise awareness of all the good stories that exist in this world.

So here they come: the best, most engaging, unique, and inspiring stories of 2021.

Dare to feel

My Wow books of 2021

Popisho by Leone Ross (Review): a magical and sensual, yet down-to-earth story that only Popisho natives will fully understand. Such an entertaining story.
Three-Body Problem trilogy by Liu Cixin (I didn’t review this one, check it out on Amazon). This series blew my mind: the scope is immense. Unsurprisingly, the books by Liu Cixin made it to the top of my science fiction book list.
Bolla by Pajtim Statovci (Review): I was really impressed by the writing style (in translation). The narrator’s feelings were expressed in a beautiful and touching way.

Exploring new horizons

At Night All Blood is Black by David Diop (Amazon): a powerful and gruesome novel about a Senegalese man who fought as a soldier in the French army during World War I.
Bakhita: A Novel of the Saint of Sudan by Véronique Olmi (Amazon): a book set in Sudan and Italy by the author of one of my favorite books, Beside the Sea. I didn’t particularly like the writing style in Bakhita, but the story was interesting.
Remote Control by Nnedi Okorafor (Review): a magical journey through Ghana that you can’t even remotely control.
Soviet milk by Nora Ikstena (Amazon): a story about the influence of Soviet rule on individual lives in Latvia.

Into science this year?

When We Cease to Understand the World by Benjamín Labatut (Amazon): a blend of fiction and essay about the good and the bad that led to scientific advances in the 20th century. And about the minds and lives of those that came up with them.
Saving Schrödinger’s Cat by Mark Jenkins (Review): Schrödinger is back again (he also plays a role in the book by Benjamín Labatut).
The Code Breaker: Jennifer Doudna, Gene Editing, and the Future of the Human Race by Walter Isaacson (Amazon): I read this one because I wanted to know more about RNA. I was also interested in the ethical aspects of curing genetic diseases and to what extent it should be allowable to improve DNA.
Future Bright, Future Grimm by D.J. MacLennan (Review): explore what happens if you use scientific progress to allow time to move on in a fairy tale realm.
Three-Body Problem trilogy by Liu Cixin (Amazon). This series blew my mind: the scope is immense. Unsurprisingly, the books by Liu Cixin made it to the top of my science fiction book list.

Identity

LGBTQ+

Bolla by Pajtim Statovci (Review): I was really impressed by the writing style (in translation). The narrator’s feelings were expressed in a beautiful and touching way.
Love in the Big City by Sang Young Park (Review): I love how his spirit and energy changed over the course of the book. The author portrays the gradual character transformation very convincingly.
The Membranes by Chi Ta-wei (Review): shows a future in which intimacy, experiences, and identity are fluid.
To the Warm Horizon by Choi Jin-young (Review): a dystopian story about two strangers growing close and showing affection despite their hardships.
Last Words from Montmartre and Notes of a Crocodile by Qiu Miaojin: two classics from Taiwan about the passionate relationships between (queer and lesbian) people. You need to be in the mood for these books.

Contemplative and mesmerizing

The Mountain Whisperer by Jia Pingwa (Review): this book is pure and warm, cruel and mean, and above all, absurd and compelling. The author combines historical and mythical knowledge into a turbulent and rich story set in rural China.
Wolf Totem by Jiang Rong (Amazon): a slow-paced story showing respect for nature and the culture of the people living in north-central Inner Mongolia. This book transports you right there and reads as a meditation on living with nature and maintaining balance.
The Wall by Marlen Haushofer (Amazon): about a woman and some animals in survival mode. At first, this sounds like a pleasant change, but trouble lurks. You would have liked to be kept ignorant until the very end…
Wittgenstein’s Nephew by Thomas Bernhard (Amazon): what stuck with me is the irony of a narrator stuck in a hospital bed talking about how he and some other people are the happiest travelers and the unhappiest arrivals.

Hard to judge

Stronghold by Kesha Bakunin (Review): a study of leadership styles and political and social issues in the form of a fantasy story set in a world with a rich history.
When We Cease to Understand the World by Benjamín Labatut (Amazon): a blend of fiction and essay about the good and the bad that caused scientific advances in the 20th century. And about the minds and lives of those that came up with them.
Bestiary by K-Ming Chang (Amazon): about three generations of Taiwanese American women that are haunted by the myths of their homeland. I didn’t like this book, but many people love it. It’s either hit or miss.

Whatever happened?

Books I wanted to like so much

Heaven by Mieko Kawakami (Amazon): half a year later I am trying to come up with a description. I have to read the synopsis to even remember what it was about. A heavy and interesting topic but I’ve read more impressive books about this topic.
Piranesi by Susanna Clark (Amazon): a book with great reviews that I found extremely boring.
The Last Graduate by Naomi Novik (Amazon): a book that I both love and hate because I don’t like the narrator’s personality and thoughts but I love the setting. So of course I’ll read the third installment next year.
To the Warm Horizon by Choi Jin-young (Review): if only one of the other characters had been the main narrator…
House in the Cerulean Sea by TJ Klune (Amazon): I actually did like this book, but it lacked the wow-factor that I was expecting after hearing other readers rave about it.

Guilty pleasures

Hollowpox: The Hunt for Morrigan Crow (Nevermoor #3) by Jessica Townsend (Amazon): a truly magical and fantastic children’s books series that was just what I needed at some point this year.
Sufficiently Advanced Magic (Arcane Ascension #1) by Andrew Rowe (Amazon): the Arcane Ascension trilogy by Andrew Rowe also helped to satisfy my magic school books craving.

Published by Honford Star (because I ended up buying all of them)

Astral Season, Beastly Season by Tahi Saihate (Review): a story about adoration and objectification. What does it take to grow up as a star instead of a beast?
To the Warm Horizon by Choi Jin-young (Review): a dystopian story about two strangers growing close and showing affection despite their hardships.
Tower by Bae Myung-hoon (Review): this book is a mirror of society; a sci-fi depiction of social and political issues. It is intense, subtle and funny.
Cursed Bunny by Bora Chung (Review): the author will amuse you with all the unusual things that are considered perfectly ordinary.
Whisper by Chang Yu-Ko (Amazon): Whisper is a plot-driven, Taiwanese horror story, that is hopefully on its way here from Manchester (I think it is travelling on foot because it was sent to me two months ago). It will arrive someday.

Most interesting books set in China

Kim — Wed, 14 Jul 2021 14:00:00 +0000

What are the most interesting Chinese books? Check out these books set in China to start immersing yourself in the culture before your visit to China.

When I’m planning a trip I like to read books originating from that country to start getting immersed and learn more about the culture. If you feel the same then look at the list below for inspiration.

For this list I’ll limit myself to books with English translations and I will only rate what I have read myself. So this list will be updated regularly when I come across interesting reads. I have added an overview of other books by Chinese authors that I still want to read.

If you have read any good books set in China or by an author from China, please recommend them to me in the comment section below.

Best Chinese Books

Liu Cixin - The Three-body Problem (#1)

 3/5

An intriguing science fiction trilogy that incorporates science and Chinese culture and history. I gave #1 only three stars, but I rated the sequels with 4 and 5 stars respectively.

Set against the backdrop of China’s Cultural Revolution, a secret military project sends signals into space to establish contact with aliens. An alien civilization on the brink of destruction captures the signal and plans to invade Earth. Meanwhile, on Earth, different camps start forming, planning to either welcome the superior beings and help them take over a world seen as corrupt, or to fight against the invasion. The result is a science fiction masterpiece of enormous scope and vision.

The Three-Body Problem is the first chance for English-speaking readers to experience the Hugo Award-winning phenomenon from China’s most beloved science fiction author, Liu Cixin.

Buy from Amazon
The sequels The Dark Forest and Death’s End have also been translated to English.

Jia Pingwa - The Mountain Whisperer

 4/5

Jia Pingwa combines historical and mythical knowledge into a turbulent and rich story set in rural China. This book is pure and warm, cruel and mean, and above all, absurd and compelling.

In a cave high in the ageless mountains of China’s desolate interior, an ancient funeral singer awaits the end. From his deathbed he gives voice to the generations of villagers to whom he devoted his life’s work, and four all-too-human souls whose struggles defined an era.

A soldier, a peasant, a revolutionary and a politician. When revolt and reform take hold of the wartorn plains, all play their debased roles in the mythic cycle of avarice, vengeance and suffering.

As his four tragedies interweave, the cracked lips of the dying sage conjure a stark vision: a retelling of the forging of the People’s Republic – from turbulent birth to absurd reversal – whispered from its uncharted margins.

Buy from Amazon
Read my review of The Mountain Whisperer

Jiang Rong - Wolf Totem

 4/5

A slow-paced story showing respect for nature and the culture of the people living in north-central Inner Mongolia. This book transports you right there and reads as a meditation on living with nature and maintaining balance.

Part period epic, part fable for modern days, Wolf Totem depicts the dying culture of the Mongols – the ancestors of the Mongol hordes who at one time terrorized the world – and the parallel extinction of the animal they believe to be sacred: the fierce and otherworldly Mongolian wolf.

Searching for spirituality, Beijing intellectual Chen Zhen travels to the pristine grasslands of Inner Mongolia to live among the nomadic Mongols-a proud, brave, and ancient race of people who coexist in perfect harmony with their unspeakably beautiful but cruel natural surroundings. Their philosophy of maintaining a balance with nature is the ground stone of their religion, a kind of cult of the wolf.

The fierce wolves that haunt the steppes of the unforgiving grassland searching for food are locked with the nomads in a profoundly spiritual battle for survival-a life-and-death dance that has gone on between them for thousands of years. The Mongols believe that the wolf is a great and worthy foe that they are divinely instructed to contend with, but also to worship and to learn from. Chen’s own encounters with the otherworldly wolves awake a latent primitive instinct in him, and his fascination with them blossoms into obsession, then reverence.

Buy from Amazon

Zhou Haohui - Death Notice (#1)

 4/5

Zhao Haohui’s Death Notice trilogy is one of the bestselling crime series in China.

Eumenides’s cunning game has only just begun. First, he publishes a “death notice,” announcing his next target, the crimes for which the victim will be punished, and the date of the execution. The note is a deeply personal taunt to the police. Everyone knows who is going to die and when it’s going to happen, but the police fail to stop the attack. The 4/18 Task Force, an elite group of detectives and specialists, is assembled to catch Eumenides before he strikes again. In the process, they discover alarming connections to an eighteen-year-old cold case, and they find out that some members of the team have much to hide.

Buy from Amazon
Read my review of the sequel Fate (only if you have already read #1!)

Hao Jingfang - Vagabonds

 4/5

No world is perfect. This is more of a dystopian discussion about society (the economic system and freedom) than anything else.

A century after the Martian war of independence, a group of kids are sent to Earth as delegates from Mars, but when they return home, they are caught between the two worlds, unable to reconcile the beauty and culture of Mars with their experiences on Earth in this spellbinding novel from Hugo Award–winning author Hao Jingfang.

This genre-bending novel is set on Earth in the wake of a second civil war…not between two factions in one nation, but two factions in one solar system: Mars and Earth. In an attempt to repair increasing tensions, the colonies of Mars send a group of young people to live on Earth to help reconcile humanity. But the group finds itself with no real home, no friends, and fractured allegiances as they struggle to find a sense of community and identity, trapped between two worlds.

Buy from Amazon

Yu Hua - The Seventh Day

 4/5

A nicely woven story providing a pleasant reading experience.

Yang Fei was born on a moving train. Lost by his mother, adopted by a young switchman, raised with simplicity and love, he is utterly unprepared for the tempestuous changes that await him and his country. As a young man, he searches for a place to belong in a nation that is ceaselessly reinventing itself, but he remains on the edges of society. At age forty-one, he meets an accidental and unceremonious death. Lacking the money for a burial plot, he must roam the afterworld aimlessly, without rest. Over the course of seven days, he encounters the souls of the people he’s lost.

As Yang Fei retraces the path of his life, we meet an extraordinary cast of characters: his adoptive father, his beautiful ex-wife, his neighbors who perished in the demolition of their homes. Traveling on, he sees that the afterworld encompasses all the casualties of today’s China—the organ sellers, the young suicides, the innocent convicts—as well as the hope for a better life to come. Yang Fei’s passage maps the contours of this vast nation—its absurdities, its sorrows, and its soul. Vivid, urgent, and panoramic, The Seventh Day affirms Yu Hua’s place as the standard-bearer of modern Chinese fiction.

Buy from Amazon

Can Xue - I Live in the Slums

 3/5

A mesmerizing short story collection featuring stories that are both mysterious and beautiful in its elegance.

Combining elements of both Chinese materiality—the love of physical things—and Western abstract thinking, Can Xue invites her readers into an immersive landscape that blends empirical fact and illusion, mixes the physical and spiritual, and probes the space between consciousness and unconsciousness. She brings us to a place that is both readily familiar yet unmappable and can make us hyperaware of the inherent unreliability in our relationship to the world around us. Delightful, enchanting, and full of mystery and secrets, Can Xue’s newest collection shines a light on the forces that give contours to the visible terrain we acknowledge as reality.

Buy from Amazon
Read my review of I Live in the Slums

Mo Yan - Frog

 3/5

An insightful story that sheds light on the impact of national policies. Not necessarily the most entertaining narrative.

Mo Yan chronicles the sweeping history of modern China through the lens of the nation’s controversial one-child policy.

Frog opens with a playwright nicknamed Tadpole who plans to write about his aunt. In her youth, Gugu—the beautiful daughter of a famous doctor and staunch Communist—is revered for her skill as a midwife. But when her lover defects, Gugu’s own loyalty to the Party is questioned. She decides to prove her allegiance by strictly enforcing the one-child policy, keeping tabs on the number of children in the village, and performing abortions on women as many as eight months pregnant.

Buy from Amazon

Sheng Keyi - Death Fugue

 3/5

A dystopian satire with a womanizer as the main character. Interesting because of its metaphors but not a very enjoyable read.

In a large square in the centre of Beiping, the capital of Dayang, a huge tower of excrement appears one day, causing unease in the population, and ultimately widespread civil unrest. The protest, in which poets play an important part, is put down violently.

Haunted by the violence, and by his failure to support his girlfriend Qizi, who is one of the protest leaders, Yuan Mengliu gives up poetry in favour of medicine, and the antiseptic environment of the operating theatre.

But every year he travels in search of Qizi, and on one of these trips, caught in a storm, he wakes to find himself in a perfect society called Swan Valley. In this utopia, as he soon discovers, impulse and feeling are completely controlled, and every aspect of life regulated for the good of the nation, with terrible consequences.

Buy from Amazon

Yan Ge - Strange Beasts of China

In the fictional Chinese town of Yong’an, human beings live alongside spirits and monsters, some of which are almost indistinguishable from people. Told in the form of a bestiary, each chapter of Strange Beasts introduces us to a new creature – from the Sacrificial Beasts, who can’t seem to stop dying, to the Besotted Beasts, an artificial breed engineered by scientists to be as loveable as possible. The narrator, an amateur cryptozoologist, is on a mission to track down each breed in turn, but in the process discovers that she might not be as human as she thought.

Buy from Amazon

Xiaolu Guo - A Lover's Discourse

A story of desire, love and language – and the meaning of home – told through conversations between two lovers

A Chinese woman comes to London to start a new life – away from her dead parents, away from her old world. She knew she would be lonely, but will her new relationship with the Australian-British-German landscape architect bring her closer to this land she has chosen, will their love give her a home?

A Lover’s Discourse is an exploration of romantic love told through fragments of conversations between the two lovers. Playing with language and the cultural differences that her narrator encounters as she settles into life in a Britain still reeling from the Brexit vote, Xiaolu Guo shows us how this couple navigate these differences, and their romance, whether on their unmoored houseboat or in a cramped and stifling flat share in east London… Suffused with a wonderful sense of humour, this intimate and tender novel asks universal questions: what is the meaning of home when we’ve been uprooted? How can a man and woman be together? And how best to be a woman and a mother?

Buy from Amazon

Li Juan - Distant Sunflower Fields

An iron-willed mother, an ageing grandmother, a pair of mismatched dogs and 90 acres of less-than-ideal farmland: these are Li Juan’s companions on the steppes of the Gobi Desert.

Writing out of a yurt under Xinjiang’s endless horizons, she documents her family’s quest to extract a bounty of sunflowers amid the harsh beauty and barren expanses of China’s northwest frontier. Success must be eked out in the face of life’s unnegotiable realities: sandstorms, locusts and death.

While this small tribe is held at the mercy of these headwinds, they discover the cheer and dignity hidden in each other. But will their ceaseless labours deliver blooming fields of green and yellow? Or will their dreams prove as distant as they are fragile?

Buy from Amazon

An Yu - Braised Pork

One morning in autumn, Jia Jia walks into the bathroom of her Beijing apartment to find her husband – with whom she had been breakfasting barely an hour before – dead in the bathtub. Next to him a piece of paper unfolds like the wings of a butterfly, and on it is an image that Jia Jia can’t forget.

Profoundly troubled by what she has seen, even while she is abruptly released from a marriage that had constrained her, Jia Jia embarks on a journey to discover the truth of the sketch. Starting at her neighbourhood bar, with its brandy and vinyl, and fuelled by anger, bewilderment, curiosity and love, Jia Jia travels deep into her past in order to arrive at her future.

Braised Pork is a cinematic, often dreamlike evocation of nocturnal Beijing and the high plains of Tibet, and an exploration of myth-making, loss, and a world beyond words, which ultimately sees a young woman find a new and deeper sense of herself.

Buy from Amazon

A Yi - A Perfect Crime

A chilling literary thriller about a motiveless murder in provincial China.

On a normal day in provincial China, a teenager goes about his regular business, but he’s also planning the brutal murder of his only friend. He lures her over, strangles her, stuffs her body into the washing machine and flees town, whereupon a perilous game of cat-and-mouse begins.

A shocking investigation into the despair that traps the rural poor as well as a technically brilliant excursion into the claustrophobic realm of classic horror and suspense, A Perfect Crime is a thrilling and stylish novel about a motiveless murder that echoes Kafka’s absurdism, Camus’ nihilism and Dostoyevsky’s depravity. With exceptional tonal control, A Yi steadily reveals the psychological backstory that enables us to make sense of the story’s dramatic violence and provides chillingly apt insights into a country on the cusp of enormous social, political and economic change.

Buy from Amazon

Qiu Xiaolong - Death of a Red Heroine

A young “national model worker,” renowned for her adherence to the principles of the Communist Party, turns up dead in a Shanghai canal. As Inspector Chen Cao of the Shanghai Special Cases Bureau struggles to trace the hidden threads of her past, he finds himself challenging the very political forces that have guided his life since birth. Chen must tiptoe around his superiors if he wants to get to the bottom of this crime, and risk his career—perhaps even his life—to see justice done.

Buy from Amazon

Yu Hua - China in Ten Words

From one of China’s most acclaimed writers, his first work of nonfiction to appear in English: a unique, intimate look at the Chinese experience over the last several decades, told through personal stories and astute analysis that sharply illuminate the country’s meteoric economic and social transformation.

Framed by ten phrases common in the Chinese vernacular—“people,” “leader,” “reading,” “writing,” “Lu Xun” (one of the most influential Chinese writers of the twentieth century), “disparity,” “revolution,” “grassroots,” “copycat,” and “bamboozle”—China in Ten Words reveals as never before the world’s most populous yet oft-misunderstood nation. In “Disparity,” for example, Yu Hua illustrates the mind-boggling economic gaps that separate citizens of the country. In “Copycat,” he depicts the escalating trend of piracy and imitation as a creative new form of revolutionary action. And in “Bamboozle,” he describes the increasingly brazen practices of trickery, fraud, and chicanery that are, he suggests, becoming a way of life at every level of society.

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Yang Zhijun - Mastiffs of the Plateau

Old blood feuds on the Tibetan plateau flare up when seven children and their Tibetan mastiff, Gangri Senge, follow a Han journalist to a rival tribe’s territory during the early days of the People’s Republic of China. As the tribe plots to punish the children for their forefathers’ crimes, it is up to Gangri Senge and the journalist who befriends him to rescue the children from a grisly fate.

Based on first-hand accounts from author Yang Zhijun’s father, this tale follows the lives of Tibet’s legendary mastiffs as Gangri Senge and the dog-loving journalist struggle to save the captured children. Together they embark on an extraordinary journey across the vast Tibetan wilderness that will change the plateau and its tribes forever.

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Review: Fate by Zhou Haohui

Kim — Mon, 12 Jul 2021 14:00:00 +0000

Fate by Zhou Haohui is a fast-paced suspense novel set in China in which the police and the perpetrator race each other to find answers to cases from long ago.

Zhao Haohui’s Death Notice trilogy is one of the bestselling crime series in China. Fate is the second book. I would recommend reading the first book (Death Notice) before reading Fate or my review of Fate.

Location: mostly set in Chengdu, China

Fate Synopsis

Chengdu, China: The vibrant capital of Sichuan Province is suddenly held hostage when a shocking manifesto is released by an anonymous vigilante known as Eumenides. It is a bold declaration of war against a corrupt legal system, with Eumenides acting as judge and executioner. The public starts nominating potential targets, and before long hundreds of names are added to his kill list.

Eumenides’s cunning game has only just begun. First, he publishes a “death notice,” announcing his next target, the crimes for which the victim will be punished, and the date of the execution. The note is a deeply personal taunt to the police. Everyone knows who is going to die and when it’s going to happen, but the police fail to stop the attack. The 4/18 Task Force, an elite group of detectives and specialists, is assembled to catch Eumenides before he strikes again. In the process, they discover alarming connections to an eighteen-year-old cold case, and they find out that some members of the team have much to hide.

The follow-up to Death Notice, the international crime-writing phenomenon, is a high-octane, high-concept cat-and-mouse thriller that adds an exhilarating new gear to the police procedural.

Book review

 4/5

Fate picks up where the previous book left off. It takes only a few pages to get into the story again. The cat-and-mouse game continues with one big difference: the perpetrator is given a voice early on. Because you know more about what’s going on, there is less mystery involved and the book reads more like part of a crime series. Then again, the author can hardly use the same concept twice.

Captain Pei’s new responsibilities seem to weigh him down. He is less effective than he was as the underdog in the police task force. Even though there are many skilled members in the task force, the other members seem to exist only in connection to Captain Pei this time around. Fate feels like a one man show. I prefer the interactions in book one, where the teamwork was more dynamic.

On the other hand, the interactions between Pei and Eumenides were of a good level; their intellect and role in the story are well matched. The cold cases and current cases are interesting. While reading, you want to find out what happened to the (cold) cases and why those involved covered up the true events. Everyone is looking for the same answers and some get them sooner than others. The hints are well-timed and none too soon. You’ll probably figure out some things before the Captain does, but you won’t outspeed Captain Pei all that much.

By the end of the book, all your questions have been answered, but you are left with a premonition of what is to come in the third part. Fate is a good suspense novel that won’t fail to entertain you.

I am glad I discovered this writer from China. Where it is sometimes a challenge to understand what moves people in books by foreign writers, that is not the case with Fate. The setting is Chinese, but the story could take place anywhere.

Interested?

Get your copy of Fate from Amazon.

Book details

Title: Fate
Author: Zhou Haohui
Translator: Zac Haluza
Publisher: Head of Zeus
Pages: 464
ISBN (13): 9781838930806
Publication date: 10 December 2020

About the author and translator

Zhou Haohui was born in 1977 and lives in Yangzhou City, Jiangsu Province. His Death Notice trilogy is China’s bestselling crime series. An online TV drama based on the novels has received more than 2.4 billion views, making it one of China’s most popular online shows ever.

Zac Haluza is the translator of the Death Notice series. He began his translation career in 2014, when his translation of Shooting the Bull won third place in the English category of that year’s China International Translation Contest. His other published translations include Never Give Up on Yourself and a short story by Hugo-Award-winning sci-fi author Liu Cixin.

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Review: The Mountain Whisperer by Jia Pingwa

Kim — Mon, 24 May 2021 14:00:00 +0000

The Mountain Whisperer by Jia Pingwa combines historical and mythical knowledge into a turbulent and rich story set in rural China. This book is pure and warm, cruel and mean, and above all, absurd and compelling.

Location: Loess Plateau in Shaanxi Province in China

The Mountain Whisperer synopsis

TIME IS A THIEF, BUT NOT DEATH

A soldier, a peasant, a revolutionary and a politician. When revolt and reform take hold of the wartorn plains, all play their debased roles in the mythic cycle of avarice, vengeance and suffering.

Book review

 4/5

This is a story about the mysterious, elusive mountain whisperer whose tall tales were enjoyed by those who listened but believed by few. It is also a story about the land and its people. To quote the author: “I strained and tortured myself trying to find a means by which local history could return to literature, how narrative could grow in the spaces between words.”

Jia Pingwa’s unique writing style transports you right to the scene. This book is pure and warm, cruel and mean, and above all, absurd and compelling.

Mythical and elusive

The mountain whisperer saw it all happen: the revolution, the land reform and re-education. Each tale focuses on a different part of the past. The impact of China’s fight against capitalism on life in the provinces is immense. The common people have no clue about what is going on. And among them walks the mountain whisperer, a good-humored fellow with a pleasant demeanor. He goes about his daily business as he always has, pretty much unfazed by it all. He is the constant factor, the anchor amidst change, at least for the duration of this book. Yet time changes for him as well.

As the mountain whisperer nears the end of his life, a shepherd sends his grandson to keep him company. With a teacher, the boy studies the Pathways Through the Mountains and Seas; a compendium of the strange and fantastic. Just like Pathways is about the entirety of China, so is Jia Pingwa’s book, except that Pathways focuses on geography and The Mountain Whisperer focuses on people. The mythical beasts in Pathways resemble people and the people in The Mountain Whisperer often exhibit animal characteristics. Strange things happen in ordinary situations and life doesn’t quite play out as you would expect.

Walking among them

This book is not about people’s emotions, but rather about how people relate to other people. You feel like you are walking among them, watching them go about their daily business and observing them in the same way that the mountain whisperer does. It is easy to visualize your surroundings, but you have to be in the right mood for this kind of immersion. The pace of the story could be described as slow if not for the fact that events are often sudden and absurd.

The writing style is episodic and events are chronologically told. During the first tale, I was still getting used to the writing style, but I liked the second and fourth tales. The third tale was my least favorite because there were too many characters with minor roles and the story did not seem focused.

Funny and gruesome

Most characters don’t seem to have a deep motivation for their actions; they’re pushed in a certain direction by situations they find themselves in. Some characters see the fun of it when things don’t go as planned. I often find myself grinning, wondering if I am even allowed to grin at some of the more gruesome but funny situations. I like the tone of the story, especially how some weird and gory facts are stated matter-of-factly as if the narrator were recounting ordinary events.

There are plenty of trigger-happy people calling for the deaths of others, desecrating bodies and graves to give offense. People die left and right and you don’t get a chance to get close to the characters. “Wang tried to get down from his bed, but his legs betrayed him and he fell face first into the chamber pot. It’d not been emptied and Wang Caidong drowned in his own piss.” People’s deaths are often like that: in one sentence you learn about their intended or accidental death. It’s a kind of dry humor that works well for me. At times I felt like I was reading a book on ways to die.

Conclusion

The writing style in The Mountain Whisperer reminds me of other books from Chinese authors, but even among them, Jia Pingwa has a unique style that is not for everyone because of its episodic nature, number of names and dry humor. With his descriptions and detail, he tells about life in rural China and manages to transport you to the scene. I felt like I spent some days living in the countryside.

This book is a mix of historical and mythological knowledge, including some insights into Chinese culture and some musings by the author in the Afterword of which I am jealous. Don’t read this book if you are looking for an exciting plot; read it for the immersion, the meaning and implications of events, and the dry observations (and a hundred different ways to die a horrible death in one sentence). This book intrigued me. I found it hard to remember who was who while reading, but now that I’ve finished reading I keep thinking about some of the characters and the lives they lived.

Interested?

Get your copy of The Mountain Whisperer from Amazon (available 28 May 2021).

Book details

Title: The Mountain Whisperer
Author: Jia Pingwa
Translator: Christopher Payne
Language: English
Publisher: Sinoist Books
Pages: 552
ISBN (13): 9781910760703
Publication date: 28 May 2021

About the author and translator

Jia Pingwa (1952- ) stands with Mo Yan and Yu Hua as one of the biggest names in contemporary Chinese literature. A prolific producer of novels, short stories and essays, he has a huge following on the Chinese mainland, as well as in Hong Kong and Taiwan. Jia Pingwa’s fiction focuses on the lives of common people, particularly in his home province of Shaanxi, and is well-known for being unafraid to explore the realm of the sexual. Ruined City was banned for many years for that same reason, and pirated copies sold on the street for several thousand yuan apiece.

Christopher Payne‘s background is in East Asian Studies, with a particular focus on cultural production from the People’s Republic of China (PRC), Taiwan, and Hong Kong. He has four published translations, two novels by Mai Jia 麦家 (published by Penguin), one by Jiang Zilong 蒋子龙 (published by ACA), and Distant Sunflower Fields《遥远的向日葵地》 by Li Juan 李娟 (published by Sinoist Books).

Many thanks to Sinoist Books and NetGalley for a digital ARC of this novel in exchange for an honest review.

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Review: Becoming Inspector Chen by Qiu Xiaolong

Kim — Mon, 15 Feb 2021 15:00:00 +0000

Becoming Inspector Chen by Qiu Xiaolong is not a mystery novel, rather it is about ordinary people surviving what life throws at them, like the Cultural Revolution in China.

Location: mostly set in Shanghai with a sidestep to Beijing.

Becoming Inspector Chen synopsis

Inspector Chen is excluded from a poetry case as he awaits possible disciplinary action, leaving him to reflect on his career . . . but does his past hold a clue to the poetry case?

After a number of grueling cases Chief Inspector Chen is facing mounting pressure from his superiors, many of whom are concerned with where his loyalties lie. What’s more, he is excluded from an investigation into an incendiary poem posted on an online forum.

Wracked with self-doubt and facing an anxious wait to discover the fate of his career, Chen is left to reflect on the events that have led to where he is now – from his amateur investigations as a child during the Cultural Revolution, to his very first case on the Shanghai Police Force.

Has fighting for the Chinese people and the morals he believes in put him in conflict with the Party? Why is he being kept away from the new case? As well as his career, is his life now also at risk?

Book Review

 3/5

“There is always a loss of meaning / in what we say or do not say, / but also a meaning / in the loss of the meaning.”

The case in the ‘now’ revolves around an anti-Party poem; a poem that very much challenges the waters that Chen is carefully trying to navigate while working as an inspector in the police department of Shanghai. I liked the frequent quotes of poems. They were well placed and gave more meaning and flavor to the story.

Chen works at the mercy of the Party leaders and his investigations need to be concluded in the best interests of the Party. That is, the investigations he does in the other books in the Inspector Chen Cao series. Chen grew up during the Cultural Revolution that made his father repent for having lived the American bourgeois lifestyle. As a result, Chen became one of the Black Class. The first part of Becoming Inspector Chen reads like a biography infused with Chinese history lessons.

Because of the many time jumps in the narrative, it took me some time to get into the story. At first, it seemed like there was no connection between the chapters, almost as if you are reading anecdotes from someone’s life that provide a background and setting to the meager story in the now. Some chapters I liked very much, for example, those featuring Ling and Mr. Ma, and others were boring, especially when Chen was mostly an observer to conversations of others.

In the end, all storylines do come together. Becoming Inspector Chen is not so much about solving a crime, but more about the wellbeing of people living in Red Dust Lane. After this book, you’ll understand how Chen came to be the person he is now and why he handles his cases as he does. Here comes the crux: this is only interesting to those that love the Inspector Chen Cao series.

There is no suspense involved. Don’t start reading this book expecting a mystery novel. Even though there is some light crime-solving, the story is more about the effect that the political and social situation in China has on ordinary people’s lives. The writing style is quite laid-back and slow; a style that is familiar to readers of fiction from Asia. As a non-Chinese person, you can easily understand what is going on as many things are explained. I do wonder how much of this was added in the translation as I assume a Chinese reader wouldn’t enjoy the many explanations.

While I am not overly enthusiastic about Becoming Inspector Chen – partly because of the slow pace that is not quite contemplating nor hardcore crime-solving – I did like some of the chapters. I learned many things through the insights provided in the lives of those living on Red Dust Lane. In such a short novel Qiu Xiaolong manages to introduce a lively cast of characters.

I’d like to repeat that this is not a mystery novel, even though all chapters lead to a crime being solved. If you are aware of this before jumping into the story, you can appreciate the story more.

Interested?

Pre-order your copy of Becoming Inspector Chen from Amazon (available 2 March 2021).

Book details
Title: Becoming Inspector Chen
Author: Qiu Xiaolong
Publisher: Severn House
Pages: 240
ISBN13: 9780727890443
Publication date: 2 March 2021

Many thanks to Severn House and NetGalley for a digital ARC of this novel in exchange for an honest review.

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Review: The Ghost Moths by Harry Farthing

Kim — Mon, 16 Nov 2020 15:00:00 +0000

The Ghost Moths by Harry Farthing is about Tibet’s struggle for independence. A great read infused with history, culture, and mysteries.

Location: you follow the main characters to Tibet, the Himalayas and the Shishapangma summit, various areas in Nepal like Kathmandu and Khumjung, and the residence of the Dalai Lama in Dharamsala, northern India. Part of the story takes place in 1956 but most of it in 2014.

The Ghost Moths synopsis

Whilst searching a windswept mountainside for the fabled ghost moth fungus, a young Tibetan boy unearths a mysterious relic. Moments later the People’s Liberation Army of China marches into his isolated village in the valley below and begins to dismantle an ancient way of life. As the brutal oppression grows, the boy’s precious find becomes first a symbol of hope for the villagers then a tool of survival for a people and a religion. It must be preserved at all costs.

Sixty years later, mountain guide Neil Quinn is wrapping up his last climb of the season on the highest mountain in Tibet when a transport shortage leaves him stuck in an empty base camp. An earthquake sets off a chain of mysterious events that directly connect the English climber to the ongoing tragedies of a troubled land where the Chinese authorities strive still for complete control.

Unsure of precisely what he witnessed yet determined to protect its truth, Quinn returns to Kathmandu and enlists the help of a famous historian of the Himalayas, an erstwhile American journalist, and a cast of locals as enigmatic as that ancient city—each with their own reasons for joining his quest. Manipulation and murder dog their every step as they strive to piece together a complex puzzle from Tibet’s tortured past while navigating the treacherous present.

Book review

 4/5

“For the past to determine the future, it must survive the present.” Central to the story are the history, culture, and politics of the Tibetan region. It features mysteries set in the Himalayas and stories that have grown huge from historical accounts. Is something like the Brocken specter a beautiful natural phenomenon or the omen of death? These things depend on who you ask.

If you are not a mountain climber, you’ll learn about the aforementioned Brocken specter – your own reflection cast by the rising sun onto the cloud below – and many other things. The author’s knowledge shines through. You will also read about Tibet’s history, present and past, and its struggle to be an autonomous region.

The main characters want to do right by their conscience or country. You’ll find these people on both sides of the fight. Sometimes you don’t have a choice when powers bigger than you determine the course, though there are some who defend the cause they believe in, until the end.

But what is even more important than a well-designed setting, is that The Ghost Moths also has an interesting storyline, with credible characters. While the plot thickens and all characters get the information needed for their end game, the relevance of the events in the past become clear at the right time.

It is rewarding to take notice of the chapter titles, as they are witty and often come across as a joke or a comment on the situation. I also like the subtitles stating the year and the location of the chapter, which makes it easy to follow the story.

The Ghost Moths by Harry Farthing is a good read for those visiting Nepal, Tibet, or Dharamsala in India. I enjoyed reading it a lot and loved the fact that it transported me to the other side of the world.

Interested?

Pre-order your copy of The Ghost Moths from Amazon (available 9 February 2021).

Many thanks to Blackstone Publishing and NetGalley for a digital ARC of this novel in exchange for an honest review.

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Review: I Live in the slums by Can Xue

Kim — Mon, 11 May 2020 14:00:00 +0000

I Live in the Slums by Chinese author Can Xue is a mesmerizing short story collection featuring stories that are both mysterious and beautiful in its elegance.

Location: set in China

I Live in the Slums: synopsis

In Can Xue’s world the superficial is peeled away to reveal layers of depth and meaning. Her stories observe no conventions of plot or characterization and limn a chaotic, poetic state ordered by the extreme logic of philosophy.

Combining elements of both Chinese materiality—the love of physical things—and Western abstract thinking, Can Xue invites her readers into an immersive landscape that blends empirical fact and illusion, mixes the physical and spiritual, and probes the space between consciousness and unconsciousness. She brings us to a place that is both readily familiar yet unmappable and can make us hyperaware of the inherent unreliability in our relationship to the world around us. Delightful, enchanting, and full of mystery and secrets, Can Xue’s newest collection shines a light on the forces that give contours to the visible terrain we acknowledge as reality.

Book review

 3/5

What is life like for the rodents, birds, shadows, and trees that share their world with human beings? That must have been the question Can Xue asked herself when she wrote the stories in this collection. The stories show the good and the ugly that happens in the world around us from a different point of view. What all stories in I Live in the Slums have in common is a rich fantasy. You read about swamps of the past, people jumping into holes and disappearing (at the lightning speed of two sentences), and buildings without doors.

My favorite stories are Swamp, I am a willow tree and Our human neighbors. The first one is a fascinating story that I won’t even try to recount. I am pretty sure I only understood part of it, but as I said, it was fascinating. I am a willow tree is about a tree’s survival and its neverending struggle against its lifelong tormentor, the gardener. The willow tree and its thoughts about the gardener’s intentions felt more ‘real’ and human than many human characters in other books. An impressive feat.

Our human neighbors is a fresh and lovely short story that felt light but hits you out of nowhere with references to death. For example: “Could it be that people who were near magpies were all fond of killing? My father said that this woman ‘clearly understood the profound mysteries of the natural world.’ In Father’s eyes, she was almost an irresistible spirit. And so Father sacrificed himself early.” Still, compared to the gloomy story before it (Story of the Slums), it was bright and refreshing.

This also brings me to my only negative point about I Live in the Slums: the first (novel-length) story, Story of the Slums, was such a drag to get through. The story had its moments; I like the dry humor (the ‘wicked goat’ and ‘ruthless mice’) and the descriptions of the slums are so good that I could imagine myself exploring the slums. The events are both intriguing and weird and you just go with the flow without any idea about where the story would lead you next. I would have liked this story collection more if it had started with another story or if this first story had been published as three separate parts.

Of all the stories in this collection, I felt most connected to Shadow people. “Where had the people gone? We hadn’t gone underground, nor were we hiding inside the hollow walls. If you carefully investigated the foot of the bed, the back of the bookcase, the corners of the room, the backs of the doors, and other similar places, you would discover pale shadows flexing and twisting. That’s us, the cowards. Worms hide in the earth. We hide indoors. It seems an odd way to live.” It must be the spur of the moment, but aren’t many of us like shadow people right now? I sure feel like one.

Which brings me to another observation: I think the stories in I Live in the Slums will have a very different meaning for every reader, depending on that person’s point of view and state of mind at the moment they read the story. After many of the stories in this collection, I pretty much sat there realizing I didn’t get them at all, which was fine. Maybe all of them are perfectly clear for someone who knows more about Chinese myths and legends.

In short

I Live in the Slums by Chinese author Can Xue is a mesmerizing short story collection featuring stories from a different perspective with elements from the Chinese culture. Every single story is both mysterious and beautiful in its elegance and descriptions of daily life. It is not a story collection I would recommend to most people, just to a select few that want to experience what else is out there. To whoever decides to read this book: skip the first story and come back for it in the end if you like the other stories.

Translated from Chinese by Karen Gernant and Zeping Chen.

Interested?

You can buy your copy of I Live in the Slums from Amazon.

Many thanks to Yale University Press and NetGalley for a digital ARC of this novel in exchange for an honest review.

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China books Archives - Where to Kim?

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Review: Bad Kids by Zijin Chen

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Liu Cixin - The Three-body Problem (#1)

Jia Pingwa - The Mountain Whisperer

Jiang Rong - Wolf Totem

Zhou Haohui - Death Notice (#1)

Hao Jingfang - Vagabonds

Yu Hua - The Seventh Day

Can Xue - I Live in the Slums

Mo Yan - Frog

Sheng Keyi - Death Fugue

Yan Ge - Strange Beasts of China

Xiaolu Guo - A Lover's Discourse

Li Juan - Distant Sunflower Fields

An Yu - Braised Pork

A Yi - A Perfect Crime

Qiu Xiaolong - Death of a Red Heroine

Yu Hua - China in Ten Words

Yang Zhijun - Mastiffs of the Plateau

Review: Fate by Zhou Haohui

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Review: The Mountain Whisperer by Jia Pingwa

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Review: Becoming Inspector Chen by Qiu Xiaolong

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Review: The Ghost Moths by Harry Farthing

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Review: I Live in the slums by Can Xue

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