false 357053 665157 0701180382 9780701180386 157 http://photo.goodreads.com/books/1176918517m/665157.jpg http://photo.goodreads.com/books/1176918517s/665157.jpg http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/665157.A_Concise_Chinese_English_Dictionary_for_Lovers 3.40 544 357053 3.41 937 277 2007 2420281 0385525923 9780385525923 76 http://www.goodreads.com/images/books/24/281/2420281-m-1256002869.jpg http://www.goodreads.com/images/books/24/281/2420281-s-1256002869.jpg http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/2420281.Twenty_Fragments_of_a_Ravenous_Youth_A_Novel 3.42 221 Twenty-one-year-old Fenfang Wang has traveled 1,800 miles to seek her fortune in contemporary urban Beijing and has no desire to return to the drudgery of the sweet-potato fields back home. However, Fenfang is ill prepared for what greets her: a Communist regime that has outworn its welcome and a city under rampant destruction and slapdash development. Yet Fenfang is determined to live a modern life. With courage and purpose, she forges ahead, and soon lands a job as a film extra. While playing roles like“woman walking over the bridge” and “waitress wiping a table” helps her eke out a meager living, Fenfang comes under the spell of two unsuitable young men, keeps her cupboard stocked with UFO noodles, and, after mastering the fever and tumult of the city, ultimately finds her true independence in the one place she never expected.

At once lively and moving, wry and passionate, TWENTY FRAGMENTS OF A RAVENOUS YOUTH is a wholly original coming-of-age story that gives us a clear-eyed glimpse into the precarious and fragile state of China's new identity. The novel is sure to assert Xiaolu Guo as her generation’s voice of modern China.

]]> 357053 3.41 937 277 2008 665158 0099484951 9780099484950 3 http://photo.goodreads.com/books/1176918517m/665158.jpg http://photo.goodreads.com/books/1176918517s/665158.jpg http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/665158.Village_of_Stone 3.61 23
Coral and her frisbee-obsessed boyfriend, Red, live in a cramped tower block in the megalopolis that is modern-day Beijing. The epitome of disaffected youth, their already fragile existence is shattered by the arrival of a mysterious fishy package. As the smells of the sea wash over her, Coral is transported back to a traumatic childhood dominated by solitude, fear and shame. Coral was raised by silent grandparents among the stern and superstitious fishermen of the remote village of Stone. Shunned from birth as a bringer of ill fortune, and exposed to the malevolent forces of a closed-off society, she immersed herself in the minutiae of the landscape around her. At fifteen, she escaped to the big city and shut the door on the darkness of her past.

As the narrative darts between the forbidding sprawl of Beijing and the rhythms of a tiny coastal village, our narrator struggles to navigate a path through painful and hidden memories of a time spent helpless, cold and alone. But when a sick old man appears on Coral’s doorstep, the past and present shockingly converge, and she is forced to confront the secrets of her history in order to realize her dreams for the future.

Beautifully poetic, lyrical and haunting, yet infused with a quiet and gentle humour, Village of Stone is a startling and bewitching novel from one of contemporary China’s freshest voices.


From the Trade Paperback edition.]]> 357053 3.41 937 277 2004 6215736 0701183357 9780701183356 7 http://www.goodreads.com/images/nocover-111x148.jpg http://www.goodreads.com/images/nocover-60x80.jpg http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/6215736.UFO_in_Her_Eyes 2.62 13
It’s not long before the village is crawling with men from the National Security and Intelligence Agency armed with pointed questions. And when the Westerner that Kwok Yun saved repays her kindness with a large dollar cheque she becomes a local celebrity, albeit under constant surveillance.

As UFO Hotels spring up, and the local villagers go out of business, Xiaolu Guo’s startling parable of change imagines an uneasy future for rural China and its relations not only with Beijing but the wider world beyond.
]]> 357053 3.41 937 277 2009 7212200 0701184833 9780701184834 0 http://www.goodreads.com/images/nocover-111x148.jpg http://www.goodreads.com/images/nocover-60x80.jpg http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/7212200-lovers-in-the-age-of-indifference 0.0 0 357053 3.41 937 277 2010