Ma Bo'le's Second Life - by Hong Xiao (Paperback)

About the Book

A Confederacy of Dunces-esque family story written by one of China's most beloved women writers.

Book Synopsis

Ma Bole follows the eponymous cowardly layabout as he escapes his unhappy family life by going on the run to avoid the coming Japanese invasion. A humorous-yet-stark depiction of despair in the face of war and Westernization, Xiao's novel (completed by the translator) mirrors the identity struggles of early-twentieth century China in the form of an unforgettable comic anti-hero.

Review Quotes

"Before her death in 1940 at age 30, Xiao Hong created a legacy of eleven books--novels, stories, reminiscences--that easily qualify her as one of the major Chinese literary figures of the century. Like Isaac Babel, Xiao Hong makes no comment, and she doesn't flinch at such unimaginable cruelty and violence; she makes it seem what it is to the villagers--part of everyday life. The effect is powerful. . . ."--Kirkus Reviews

"The book is powerful in its confinement, vivid in its simplicity. The prose, at once imagistic, spare and haunting, recalls at moments the melancholy timbre of Jean Rhys."--Los Angeles Times

"The dialogue is absolutely convincing and the author's ability to present daily adventure profound. In its specificity, Market Street offers an ultimately universal lesson about freedom and oppression."--Boston Globe

"Even in translation Xiao Hong's voice is that of a true original."--Far Eastern Economic Review

About the Author

XIAO Hong (1911 - 1942) was one of the most important Chinese novelists of the twentieth century. With a literary output covering less than ten years, her impact is still felt today with such novels as The Field of Life and Death, Memories of Mr. Lu Xun, and Tales of Hulan River. She is the subject of the 2014 biopic, The Golden Era.

Over the course of his career, Howard Goldblatt has translated more than sixty works of Chinese literature, including the works of Nobel Prize-winner Mo Yan, and Chu T'ien-wen, for which he won the National Translation Award. In 2009 he received a Guggenheim Fellowship, and recently retired from Notre Dame University.