Overview

Lenin's Kisses is a brilliant novel about modern China. Blind, deaf, and disfigured, the 197citizens of the Village of Liven enjoy a peaceful lifestyle, spared from the government's watchfuleye. But when an unseasonal snowstorm wipes out the grain crops, a county official convincesthe villagers to set up a travelling freak-show showcasing their disabilities. With the money, heintends to buy Lenin's embalmed corpse from Russia and install it in a mausoleum in the mountainsto attract tourism to the sleepy district. Lenin's Kisses is a rollicking tragicomedy with a cast of moving characters-a cautionary tale ofthe all-consuming desire for power and wealth from one of China's most respected andcelebrated writers

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9781922079435

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Reviews

'The novel's depth lies in its ability to express an unbearable sorrow, even while constantly making he reader laugh out loud...a truly miraculous novel.' Hong Kong Ming Pao Weekly 'Yan Lianke sees and describes his characters with great tenderness...this talented and sensitive writer exposes the absurdity of our time.' La Croix 'Yan Lianke weaves a passionate satire of today's China, a marvellous circus where the one-eyed-man is king...Brutal. And wickedly funny.' L'Express 'One of China's most successful fiction writers.' New York Times 'Set Rabelais down in the mountains of, say, Xinjiang, mix in some Gunter Grass, Thomas Pynchon and Gabriel Garcia Marquez, and you're in the approximate territory of Lianke's latest exercise in epatering the powers that be ... A satirical masterpiece.' Kirkus Reviews 'Both a blistering satire and a bruising saga, this epic novel examines the grinding forces of communism and capitalism, and the volatile zone where the two intersect...A heartbreaking story of greed, corruption, and the dangers of utopia.' Publishers Weekly

'The novel's depth lies in its ability to express an unbearable sorrow, even while constantly making he reader laugh out loud...a truly miraculous novel.' Hong Kong Ming Pao Weekly 'Yan Lianke sees and describes his characters with great tenderness...this talented and sensitive writer exposes the absurdity of our time.' La Croix 'Yan Lianke weaves a passionate satire of today's China, a marvellous circus where the one-eyed-man is king...Brutal. And wickedly funny.' L'Express 'One of China's most successful fiction writers.' New York Times 'Set Rabelais down in the mountains of, say, Xinjiang, mix in some Gunter Grass, Thomas Pynchon and Gabriel Garcia Marquez, and you're in the approximate territory of Lianke's latest exercise in epatering the powers that be ... A satirical masterpiece.' Kirkus Reviews 'Both a blistering satire and a bruising saga, this epic novel examines the grinding forces of communism and capitalism, and the volatile zone where the two intersect...A heartbreaking story of greed, corruption, and the dangers of utopia.' Publishers Weekly 'Lenin's Kisses is a novel of great breadth and skill, wonderful characters and magical storytelling. This book may be an unflattering portrayal of a China at the historical point where it shifted from 'high communism' to 'hypercaptialism', but it is also immensely readable and joyous.' The Hoopla

Author Information

Yan Lianke was born in 1958 in Henan Province, China. He is the author of numerous story collections and novels, including The Day the Sun Died; The Years, Months, Days; The Explosion Chronicles, which was longlisted for the Man Booker International and PEN Translation Prize; The Four Books; Lenin’s Kisses; Serve the People!; and Dream of Ding Village. Among his many accolades, he was awarded the Franz Kafka Prize, was twice a finalist for the Man Booker International Prize, and has been shortlisted for the Independent Foreign Fiction Prize, the Man Asian Literary Prize, and the Prix Femina Étranger. He has received two of China’s most prestigious literary honors, the Lu Xun Prize and the Lao She Award. He lives in Bejing. Carlos Rojas is Associate Professor in the Department of Asian and Middle Eastern Studies at Duke University. He has translated Yan Lianke’s five most recent books.

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