Yan Lianke’s compelling novel tells the story of one of China’s most controversial periods, the Great Famine, in which at least 45 million people died. Translated by Carlos Rojas.1958, China. In a sprawling labour camp like hundreds of others, inmates must meet challenges set by the higher-ups: to grow an ever-spiralling amount of wheat and to smelt vast quantities of steel. The stakes are high: they can win their freedom if they collect enough red blossoms, awarded for effort, obedience & informing on others. But when bad weather arrives, followed by three bitter years of The Great Famine, the inmates are abandoned by the regime & left on their own to survive."Yan’s fiction is, in fact, arch & playful...He deploys offbeat humour, anarchic set pieces & surreal imagery to shed new light on dark episodes from modern Chinese history. His newly translated The Four Books... explores one of the 20th century’s ghastliest events...[focusing] on the 99th district, a labour camp for bourgeois “counter-revolutionaries”...who have been sent to the countryside to participate in the Great Leap... Yan’s prose, ably translated by Carlos Rojas, alternates between blank descriptions of the horror — “the ninety-ninth was bloated & listless, & periodically someone would die” — & extravagant symbolism: crucifixes, infernos, wheat sheaves mysteriously swollen with blood. It’s not exactly subtle but these Grand Guignol flourishes seem grimly appropriate." — David Evans, The Financial Times°°° Yan Lianke was born in 1958 in Henan Province, China. He is the author of numerous novels & short-story collections, including Serve the People!, Dream of Ding Village & Lenin’s Kisses. The winner of multiple literary awards in China, including the Lao She, Lu Xun & Hua Zhong World Chinese Literature Prize, he was also awarded the Franz Kafka Prize in 2014 & has been shortlisted for the Independent Foreign Fiction Prize.

lgrsfic/eng\_tuebl\12603079891114.epub

zlib/Fiction/Peoples & Cultures - Fiction/Yan Lianke, Carlos Rojas (translation)/The Four Books_4749084.epub

4 books

Sishu

Yan Lianke; translated from the Chinese by Carlos Rojas

Lianke Yan; Carlos Rojas

Grove/Atlantic, Incorporated

Atlantic Monthly Press

The Hogarth Press Ltd

Chatto,Boyd & Oliver

Grove Atlantic

Random House

Grove Press

Open Road Integrated Media, Inc., [N.p.], 2015

United Kingdom and Ireland, United Kingdom

United States, United States of America

First edition., New York State, 2015

1st Edition, First Edition, PS, 2015

First Trade Paper, 2015

London, 2015

2015-01-01

2022

lg_fict_id_1852348

Translation from the Chinese of: Sishu.

From master storyteller Yan Lianke, winner of the prestigious Franz Kafka Prize and a finalist for the Man Booker International Prize, The Four Books is a powerful, daring novel of the dog-eat-dog psychology inside a labor camp for intellectuals during Maos Great Leap Forward. A renowned author in China, and among its most censored, Yans mythical, sometimes surreal tale cuts to the bone in its portrayal of the struggle between authoritarian power and mans will to prevail against the darkest odds through camaraderie, love, and faith.
In the ninety-ninth district of a sprawling reeducation compound, freethinking artists and academics are detained to strengthen their loyalty to Communist ideologies. Here, the Musician and her lover, the Scholaralong with the Author and the Theologianare forced to carry out grueling physical work and are encouraged to inform on each other for dissident behavior. The winning the chance at freedom. They're overseen by preadolescent supervisor, the Child, who delights in reward systems and excessive punishments. When agricultural and industrial production quotas are raised to an unattainable level, the ninety-ninth district dissolves into lawlessness. And then, as inclement weather and famine set in, they are abandoned by the regime and left alone to survive.

From the Franz Kafka Prize–winning author of Lenin’s Kiss , a “stupendous and unforgettable” novel of Mao’s China ( The Times , London).
In the ninety-ninth district of a re-education compound, freethinking artists and academics are detained to strengthen their loyalty to Communist ideologies. Here, the Musician and her lover, the Scholar, along with the Author and the Theologian, are subjected to grinding physical labor. They are also encouraged to inform on each other’s dissident behavior—for the prize of a chance at freedom.
Their preadolescent supervisor, the Child, delights in reward systems and excessive punishments. But when agricultural and industrial production quotas are raised to an unattainable level, the ninety-ninth district dissolves into lawlessness. As inclement weather and famine set in, the people are abandoned by the regime and left alone to survive.
Set inside a labor camp during Mao’s Great Leap Forward, Booklist calls The Four Books a “rich and complex novel,” from “China’s most heralded and censored modern writer” ( The South China Morning Post ).

Man Booker International Prize finalist Yan Lianke's most powerful and searing novel yet, about the persecution of intellectuals in a reeducation camp during the Great Leap Forward. "The Four Books" is a daring, darkly satirical story of the dog-eat-dog psychology inside a labor camp during China's "three bitter years" of famine. Reminiscent of such classics as "A Day in the Life of Ivan Denisovich" and "Darkness at Noon," Yan's mythical, symbolic, sometimes surreal tale portrays the absurdity and grotesquerie of this traumatic period, which has been a taboo subject for half a century. Divided into four narratives - influenced by the four texts of Confucianism and the four Gospels of the New Testament - this is an affecting and poetic novel that captures the universal power of camaraderie, love, and faith against oppression and the darkest odds

'One of China's greatest living authors and fiercest satirists' GuardianIn 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.
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In the ninety-ninth district of a sprawling reeducation compound, freethinking artists and academics are detained to strengthen their loyalty to Communist ideologies. They are forced to carry out grueling physical work and are encouraged to inform on each other for dissident behavior. The prize: winning the chance at freedom. They're overseen by preadolescent supervisor, the Child, who delights in reward systems and excessive punishments. When agricultural and industrial production quotas are raised to an unattainable level, the ninety-ninth district dissolves into lawlessness. And then, as inclement weather and famine set in, they are abandoned by the regime and left alone to survive.

2017-07-01