1966 - by Xiaoni Wang (Hardcover)

Book Synopsis

The year 1966 saw the start of a decade of social and political upheaval in China. In these eleven stories by poet Wang Xiaoni, the horrors, confusion, and utter disruption of the Cultural Revolution are just beginning. An educated family of six in the city is forced to get rid of their beloved collection of books, a starving abandoned boy obsessed with trains waits for his brother to return from Beijing, and an elderly and mentally unstable man is desperate to hide a personal history that has suddenly become a death sentence.

Wang brings a light touch to this painful subject matter, balancing a pervading sense of unreality with telling details that ring true to life even now. Elegantly rendered in English by award-winning poet and translator Eleanor Goodman, 1966 offers powerful, moving, and deeply human vignettes illuminating how this key moment in Chinese history was experienced by ordinary citizens.

About the Author

Wang Xiaoni was born in 1955 in Changchun, Jilin Province. She has published more than forty books, including collections of essays, short stories, and poetry.

Eleanor Goodman is an American poet and translator. She is the author of Lessons in Glass and the translator of Iron Moon and Wang Xiaoni's Something Crosses My Mind.