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
- Longlisted
- The Man Booker International Prize 2017
- Published by Chatto & Windus
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Yan Lianke’s fantastical satire about a culture so obsessed with an ever-expanding lust for power and money that it has forgotten its soul
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 vast megalopolis. Behind this rapid expansion are three rival clans linked together by a web of ambition, madness, dishonesty and greed as they seek to create an unrivalled urban superpower.
Yan Lianke
Prolific author Yan Lianke was born in 1958 in Henan Province, China
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Carlos Rojas
Carlos Rojas is an author and translator. He also teaches on a variety of topics - ranging from prostitutes and vampires to cities, migration and disease
More about Carlos Rojas Other nominated books by Carlos Rojas
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
