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Where History, Myth, and the Supernatural Collide Winner of the 2024 NYC Big Book Award in the World Literature Category Curses of the Kingdom of Xixia recreates a rich tapestry of the history, religion, lore, and customs of a region in present-day northwestern China. Using the discovery of ""lost"" manuscripts as a frame, the novel presents historical events and tales of semi-fictional characters, including the avatar of a local Tantric Buddhist goddess, a Dakini/Vajrayogini named Snow Feather. Taking readers through different historical times and the various geographical and cultural spaces of the region, Xuemo reveals truths by blurring the distinction between good and evil, beauty and hideousness, reality and fiction, permanence and impermanence. Magical realism and mimesis coexist. Reality merges with illusion, and the mundane with the supernatural, shaping a unique literary charm. The English edition, translated by Fan Pen Li Chen, Associate Professor of East Asian Studies at the University at Albany, State University of New York, is published by SUNY Press. This work pioneers the reimagining of history and human life through a nonlinear narrative, offering a powerful and immersive reading experience. Xuemo, born in 1963 as Chen Kaihong, is a renowned writer from Gansu, China. He has written over 80 books, published in more than 200 editions, with translations available in over 20 languages.His novel Into the Desert won the 2022 Excellent Translation Award by the China International Communications Group (CICG), 2024 NYC Big Book Award for Women's Fiction and the 2024 Independent Press Award for Literary Fiction. His novel Curses of the Kingdom of Xixia won the 2024 NYC Big Book Award for World Literature. The novel Wild Fox Ridge won the 2024 International Impact Book Award and the 2025 NYC Big Book Award, and was honored with the 2025 International Book Awards. He topped the International Media Spotlight List at the Frankfurt Book Fair 2022, even surpassing the Guest of Honor, Spain, became the most remarkable and memorable events of the Frankfurt Book Fair 2022. The e-book editions of Desert Rites, Desert Hunters, White Tiger Pass, Love Letters from the Goddess, Eternal Love and Reclaim the Throne of Your Heart have repeatedly ranked No. 1 on Amazon's bestseller lists.

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Xuemo, born in 1963 as Chen Kaihong, is a renowned writer from Gansu, China. He has written over 80 books, published in more than 200 editions, with translations available in over 20 languages, including English, French, German, Korean, Russian, and Spanish.Xuemo is one of China's most influential contemporary writers. His audiobook Buddha's Wisdom: Xuemo Interprets the Diamond Sutra on the Himalaya platform, has been played over 35 million times and remains a top-ranking program. His series What's on Laozi's mind: Xuemo Interprets Dao De Jing has sold nearly one million copies in China.Since 2019, his works have been featured in independent booths at major international book fairs and film festivals in Germany, London, the United States, and across Asia. In 2022, he topped the International Media Spotlight List at the Frankfurt Book Fair, drawing more attention than the Guest of Honor, Spain. This achievement was hailed as one of the most remarkable and memorable events of the Frankfurt Book Fair 2022.Notably, more than ten of his works have been translated by Howard Goldblatt and Sylvia Li-chun Lin, the distinguished translators of Nobel Prize-winning literature. Research centers devoted to his work have been established at Ningbo University and Central South University.

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