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 An
enchanting literary debut—already an international
best-seller.
At the height of Mao’s infamous Cultural
Revolution, two boys are among hundreds of thousands
exiled to the countryside for “re-education.”
The narrator and his best friend, Luo, guilty of being
the sons of doctors, find themselves in a remote village
where, among the peasants of Phoenix mountain, they
are made to cart buckets of excrement up and down precipitous
winding paths. Their meager distractions include a violin—as
well as, before long, the beautiful daughter of the
local tailor.
But it is when the two discover a hidden
stash of Western classics in Chinese translation that
their re-education takes its most surprising turn. While
ingeniously concealing their forbidden treasure, the
boys find transit to worlds they had thought lost forever.
And after listening to their dangerously seductive retellings
of Balzac, even the Little Seamstress will be forever
transformed.
From within the hopelessness and terror
of one of the darkest passages in human history, Dai
Sijie has fashioned a beguiling and unexpected story
about the resilience of the human spirit, the wonder
of romantic awakening and the magical power of storytelling.
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