Read an extract from Ninth Building by Zou Jingzhi, translated by Jeremy Tiang
In Ninth Building, which is longlisted for the International Booker Prize 2023, Zou Jingzhi captures a side of the Cultural Revolution that is seldom talked about
Zou Jingzhi
Zou Jingzhi is highly regarded in China as a fiction writer, poet, essayist, screenwriter and playwright.
He is a founding member of the Chinese theatre collective Longmashe. As a screenwriter, the films he wrote for Zhang Yimou and Wong Kar Wai have been well received at film festivals across the world. His plays and operas have been performed in China as well as internationally, and his poems and essays have been very influential, going into multiple reprints.
Zou Jingzhi’s novel Ninth Building was longlisted for the International Booker Prize 2023, announced on March 14 2023.
A kaleidoscopic and understated collection of interlocking tales of life in an apartment building under the Cultural Revolution – the daily tedium of its inhabitants, lit by brief and tenuous moments of shared humanity.
— The International Booker Prize 2023 panel of judges on 'Ninth Building'
All nominated books
A fascinating collection of vignettes based on the author’s life in China during the Cultural Revolution.