Overview

A brave young woman negotiates Beijing life in search of love and friendship in the daring new novel by Xiaolu Guo, Orange Prize shortlisted author and 'one of China's most successful literary exports' (Guardian) Life as a film extra in Beijing might seem hard, but Fenfang won't be defeated. She has travelled 1800 miles to seek her fortune in the city, and has no desire to return to the never-ending sweet potato fields back home. Determined to live a modern life, Fenfang works as a cleaner in the Young Pioneer's movie theatre, falls in love with unsuitable men and keeps her kitchen cupboard stocked with UFO instant noodles. As Fenfang might say, Heavenly Bastard in the Sky, isn't it about time I got my lucky break? Longlisted for the Man Asian Literary Prize.

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9780099512936

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A nihilistic, Generation X-style manifesto... Its impudent, hand-on-hip attitude cannot fail to charm New Statesman Funny and melancholy, scintillatingly observed, and has a very big heart The Times Both a personal odyssey and an insightful commentary about modern Chinese society and life itself... Xiaolu Guo is an instinctive, humane witness, her atmospheric, unusually physical narratives are alive and attractively insistent, inspired variations on the theme of quest Irish Times A pure and bracing blast of universal youth... I loved it. It shines with the utterly blameless, scarily fragile arrogance of youth itself, the absolute certainty that death is better than middle age Daily Telegraph A breath of the freshest air imaginable. She cuts through the smog of hype and platitude -- Boyd Tonkin Independent

Its impudent, hand-on-hip attitude cannot fail to charm New Statesman Enjoyable, lively and well-presented Financial Times A feisty and funny rite-of-passage novel...I loved the protagonist, Fenfang, whose strength of personality allows her to blossom amid the crushing anonymity of Beijing New Statesman Funny and melancholy, scintillatingly observed, and has a very big heart The Times Xiaolu Guo is an instinctive, humane witness, her atmospheric, unusually physical narratives are alive and attractively insistent, inspired variations on the theme of quest ... Guo's observations will make you smile and remember; she will also nudge the reader towards thoughts about language, culture and the very business of living Irish Times

A breath of the freshest air imaginable. She cuts through the smog of hype and platitude -- Boyd Tonkin * Independent * A pure and bracing blast of universal youth... I loved it. It shines with the utterly blameless, scarily fragile arrogance of youth itself, the absolute certainty that death is better than middle age * Daily Telegraph * Both a personal odyssey and an insightful commentary about modern Chinese society and life itself... Xiaolu Guo is an instinctive, humane witness, her atmospheric, unusually physical narratives are alive and attractively insistent, inspired variations on the theme of quest * Irish Times * Funny and melancholy, scintillatingly observed, and has a very big heart * The Times * A nihilistic, Generation X-style manifesto... Its impudent, hand-on-hip attitude cannot fail to charm * New Statesman *

Author Information

Xiaolu Guo was born in China. She published six books before moving to Britain in 2002. Her books include- Village of Stone, shortlisted for the Independent Foreign Fiction Prize; A Concise Chinese-English Dictionary for Lovers, shortlisted for the Orange Prize; and I Am China. Her recent memoir, Once Upon a Time in the East, won the National Book Critics Circle Award, was shortlisted for the Costa Biography Award and the Rathbones Folio Prize 2018. It was a Sunday Times Book of the Year. Her most recent novel A Lover's Discourse was shortlisted for the Goldsmiths Prize 2020. She is a fellow of the Royal Society of Literature and a visiting professor at the Free University in Berlin.

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