Overview

Man Booker International finalist Yan Lianke has been lauded for his imaginative satire and insightful cultural critique as one of China's greatest living authors (Guardian). His internationally bestselling new novel, The Explosion Chronicles, follows the excessive expansion of a rural community from small village to megalopolis. With the Yi River on one side and the Balou Mountains on the other, the village of Explosion was founded more than a millennium ago by refugees fleeing a seismic volcanic eruption. But in the post-Mao era the name takes on a new significance as the community grows explosively from a small village to a vast metropolis. Behind this rapid expansion are members of the community's three major families, including the four Kong brothers; Zhu Ying, the daughter of the former village chief; and Cheng Qing, who starts out as a secretary and goes on to become a powerful political and business figure. Linked together by a complex web of loyalty, betrayal, desire, and ambition, these figures are the driving force behind their hometown's transformation into an urban superpower. Brimming with absurdity, intelligence, and wit, The Explosion Chronicles considers the high stakes of passion and power, the consequences of corruption and greed, the polarizing dynamics of love and hate between families, as well as humankind's resourcefulness through the vicissitudes of life.

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9780802125828

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Reviews

<b>Praise for <i>The Explosion Chronicles</i></b> A rip-roaring Swiftian satire from a contemporary Chinese master . . . Yan Lianke, one of China s most forthright and versatile novelists, enlists extravagant comedy and far-fetched fable to propel his critique of a society where power and money have colluded to steal people s souls . . . The reader slips into a literary China of poetry and mystery that flourished long before the boom. <i><b>Economist</i></b> This darkly absurd history trucks freely with the fantastic . . . but many of the more brazen events are taken straight from the news . . . Yan s burlesque of a nation driven insane by money is equally a satire of some of the excesses of the Chinese Revolution. <i><b>Wall Street Journal</i></b> A satire of ambition. <i><b>Sacramento News</i></b> Yan returns with renewed vigor to the job of lampooning communist orthodoxy, capitalist ambition, and contemporary China's incomprehensible absurdity . . . [<i>The Explosion Chronicles</i>] has the absurdist feel of an Ionesco or Durrenmatt piece, though without any of the heavy-handed obviousness . . . It can be read as a kind of Swiftian satire . . . Brilliant. <i><b>Kirkus Reviews</i> (starred review)</b> An epic page-turner . . . a multi-layered marvel . . . combining unflinching observation [and] stinging satire . . . Yan s mesmerizing ability to pull readers into this raw, subversive, not completely fictional world will continue to build his international audiences. <i><b>Library Journal</i> (starred review)</b> This novel is a thoroughly fantastical satire where the absurdity reflects the profound truth . . . Beautiful and strongly poetic . . . Yan Lianke s ambition is not that of a polemicist, his realist and fantastical approach creates a literary work and make us feel this phenomenal transformation. <b><i>Rue 89</b></i> Yan Lianke imagines a parable of the changes he has lived through . . . [He] manipulates irony, absurdity, and the fantastical with ease. <b><i>Telerama</b></i> Armed with a literary style called mythorealism, which shows an invisible reality via fiction, Yan Lianke paints a metaphoric and absurd portrait of contemporary China so obsessed with growth that its moral values have been left by the wayside. Yan Lianke s poetic prose rewards those who read to the end of this great novel of rare profundity. <b><i>Le Monde</b></i>

<b>Praise for <i>The Explosion Chronicles</i></b> Yan returns with renewed vigor to the job of lampooning communist orthodoxy, capitalist ambition, and contemporary China's incomprehensible absurdity . . . [<i>The Explosion Chronicles</i>] has the absurdist feel of an Ionesco or Durrenmatt piece, though without any of the heavy-handed obviousness . . . It can be read as a kind of Swiftian satire . . . Brilliant. <i><b>Kirkus Reviews</i> (starred review)</b> This novel is a thoroughly fantastical satire where the absurdity reflects the profound truth . . . Beautiful and strongly poetic . . . Yan Lianke s ambition is not that of a polemicist, his realist and fantastical approach creates a literary work and make us feel this phenomenal transformation. <b><i>Rue 89</b></i> Yan Lianke imagines a parable of the changes he has lived through . . . [He] manipulates irony, absurdity, and the fantastical with ease. <b><i>Telerama</b></i> Armed with a literary style called mythorealism, which shows an invisible reality via fiction, Yan Lianke paints a metaphoric and absurd portrait of contemporary China so obsessed with growth that its moral values have been left by the wayside. Yan Lianke s poetic prose rewards those who read to the end of this great novel of rare profundity. <b><i>Le Monde</b></i>

Praise for The Explosion Chronicles A rip-roaring Swiftian satire from a contemporary Chinese master . . . Yan Lianke, one of China's most forthright and versatile novelists, enlists extravagant comedy and far-fetched fable to propel his critique of a society where 'power and money have colluded to steal people's souls' . . . The reader slips into a literary China of poetry and mystery that flourished long before the boom. --Economist This darkly absurd history trucks freely with the fantastic . . . but many of the more brazen events are taken straight from the news . . . Yan's burlesque of a nation driven insane by money is equally a satire of some of the excesses of the Chinese Revolution. --Wall Street Journal A satire of ambition. --Sacramento News Yan returns with renewed vigor to the job of lampooning communist orthodoxy, capitalist ambition, and 'contemporary China's incomprehensible absurdity' . . . [The Explosion Chronicles] has the absurdist feel of an Ionesco or Durrenmatt piece, though without any of the heavy-handed obviousness . . . It can be read as a kind of Swiftian satire . . . Brilliant. --Kirkus Reviews (starred review) An epic page-turner . . . a multi-layered marvel . . . combining unflinching observation [and] stinging satire . . . Yan's mesmerizing ability to pull readers into this raw, subversive, not completely fictional world will continue to build his international audiences. --Library Journal (starred review) This novel is a thoroughly fantastical satire where the absurdity reflects the profound truth . . . Beautiful and strongly poetic . . . Yan Lianke's ambition is not that of a polemicist, his realist and fantastical approach creates a literary work and make us feel this phenomenal transformation. --Rue 89 Yan Lianke imagines a parable of the changes he has lived through . . . [He] manipulates irony, absurdity, and the fantastical with ease. --Telerama Armed with a literary style called 'mythorealism', which shows an invisible reality via fiction, Yan Lianke paints a metaphoric and absurd portrait of contemporary China so obsessed with growth that its moral values have been left by the wayside. Yan Lianke's poetic prose rewards those who read to the end of this great novel of rare profundity. --Le Monde

<b>Praise for <i>The Explosion Chronicles</i></b> The elements of fairytale fantasy scattered across <i>The Explosion Chronicles</i> help to sweeten a toughminded satire. Yan Lianke, one of China s most forthright and versatile novelists, enlists extravagant comedy and farfetched fable to propel his critique of a society where power and money have colluded to steal people s souls. <i><b>Economist</i></b> Yan returns with renewed vigor to the job of lampooning communist orthodoxy, capitalist ambition, and contemporary China's incomprehensible absurdity . . . [<i>The Explosion Chronicles</i>] has the absurdist feel of an Ionesco or Durrenmatt piece, though without any of the heavy-handed obviousness . . . It can be read as a kind of Swiftian satire . . . Brilliant. <i><b>Kirkus Reviews</i> (starred review)</b> An epic page-turner . . . a multi-layered marvel . . . combining unflinching observation [and] stinging satire . . . Yan s mesmerizing ability to pull readers into this raw, subversive, not completely fictional world will continue to build his international audiences. <i><b>Library Journal</i> (starred review)</b> This novel is a thoroughly fantastical satire where the absurdity reflects the profound truth . . . Beautiful and strongly poetic . . . Yan Lianke s ambition is not that of a polemicist, his realist and fantastical approach creates a literary work and make us feel this phenomenal transformation. <b><i>Rue 89</b></i> Yan Lianke imagines a parable of the changes he has lived through . . . [He] manipulates irony, absurdity, and the fantastical with ease. <b><i>Telerama</b></i> Armed with a literary style called mythorealism, which shows an invisible reality via fiction, Yan Lianke paints a metaphoric and absurd portrait of contemporary China so obsessed with growth that its moral values have been left by the wayside. Yan Lianke s poetic prose rewards those who read to the end of this great novel of rare profundity. <b><i>Le Monde</b></i>

Praise for The Explosion Chronicles -A rip-roaring Swiftian satire from a contemporary Chinese master . . . Yan Lianke, one of China's most forthright and versatile novelists, enlists extravagant comedy and far-fetched fable to propel his critique of a society where 'power and money have colluded to steal people's souls' . . . The reader slips into a literary China of poetry and mystery that flourished long before the boom.- --Economist -This darkly absurd history trucks freely with the fantastic . . . but many of the more brazen events are taken straight from the news . . . Yan's burlesque of a nation driven insane by money is equally a satire of some of the excesses of the Chinese Revolution.- --Wall Street Journal -A satire of ambition.- --Sacramento News -Yan returns with renewed vigor to the job of lampooning communist orthodoxy, capitalist ambition, and 'contemporary China's incomprehensible absurdity' . . . [The Explosion Chronicles] has the absurdist feel of an Ionesco or Durrenmatt piece, though without any of the heavy-handed obviousness . . . It can be read as a kind of Swiftian satire . . . Brilliant.- --Kirkus Reviews (starred review) -An epic page-turner . . . a multi-layered marvel . . . combining unflinching observation [and] stinging satire . . . Yan's mesmerizing ability to pull readers into this raw, subversive, not completely fictional world will continue to build his international audiences.- --Library Journal (starred review) -This novel is a thoroughly fantastical satire where the absurdity reflects the profound truth . . . Beautiful and strongly poetic . . . Yan Lianke's ambition is not that of a polemicist, his realist and fantastical approach creates a literary work and make us feel this phenomenal transformation.- --Rue 89 -Yan Lianke imagines a parable of the changes he has lived through . . . [He] manipulates irony, absurdity, and the fantastical with ease.- --Telerama -Armed with a literary style called 'mythorealism', which shows an invisible reality via fiction, Yan Lianke paints a metaphoric and absurd portrait of contemporary China so obsessed with growth that its moral values have been left by the wayside. Yan Lianke's poetic prose rewards those who read to the end of this great novel of rare profundity.- --Le Monde

Author Information

Yan Lianke is the author of numerous short story collections and novels, including The Four Books, Lenin's Kisses, Serve the People!, and Dream of Ding Village, which was shortlisted for the Man Asian Literary Prize and the Independent Foreign Fiction Prize and adapted into a film. He was awarded two of China's most prestigious literary honors, the Lu Xun and the Lao She prizes.

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