Remembering 1942 - by Liu Zhenyun (Paperback)

Book Synopsis

The bestselling and award-winning author of novels satirizing contemporary China, Liu Zhenyun is also renowned for his short stories. Remembering 1942 showcases six of his best, featuring a diverse cast of ordinary people struggling against the obstacles--bureaucratic, economic, and personal--that life presents.

The exquisite stories within this collection range from an exploration of office politics unmoored by an unexpected gift to the tale of a young soldier attempting to acclimate to his new life as a student and the story of a couple struggling to manage the demands of a young child. The masterful title story--which was adapted into a movie in 2012--explores the legacy of the drought and famine that struck Henan Province in 1942, tracing its echoes in one man's journey through war and revolution and into the present.

Each story is rich in wit, insight, and empathy, and together they bring into focus the realities of China's past and present, evoking clearly and mordantly the often Kafkaesque circumstances of contemporary life in the world's most populous nation.

Review Quotes

"The power of this novel is derived, partly, from the sharp glance the author casts at the modern Chinese society, plagued by corruption, poverty, and injustice. The dark tale is lightened by the author's delicious humor. Liu Zhenyun is an outstanding storyteller. --Lijia Zhang, author of Socialism is Great!

"Liu's fiction is a romp through modern Beijing that pits migrant workers from the provinces against billionaires and officials, making a wry statement about modern China and a thoroughly entertaining book." --Kirkus Reviews

"An intricate, dark-hearted crime tale . . . The web of deceptions, double crosses, and betrayals Zhenyun builds into his ambitious, complex novel result in a rich depiction of the criminal underworld." --Publishers Weekly

"Readers will enjoy this immersion in urban China and Liu's rollicking-good send-up of modern-day predatory capitalism." --Booklist

"Those who enjoy Chinese literature will appreciate how the novel openly provides commentary on the disparity between the economic social classes and unscrupulous corruption found in almost any society." --Library Journal

"Government fear of chaos is omnipresent in this expertly translated political farce . . . an intimate portrait of the local politics that matter so greatly in China." --The New York Times

"A masterful tale that will make you laugh even as you despair . . . Wickedly subtle satire." --Kirkus Reviews (starred review)

"A satirical tale that nimbly examines political corruption in China." --Publishers Weekly

About the Author

Howard Goldblatt is a literary translator of numerous works of contemporary Chinese fiction from mainland China and Taiwan, including Nobel Prize-winner Mo Yan, five of whose works are published by Arcade (The Garlic Ballads; The Republic of Wine; Big Breasts and Wide Hips; Life and Death Are Wearing Me Out; Shifu, You'll Do Anything for a Laugh). He has also translated works by Liu Zhenyun (I Did Not Kill My Husband; The Cook, the Crook, and the Real Estate Tycoon; Remembering 1942, which are published by Arcade), Huang Chunming (The Taste of Apples), and Chen Ruoxi (The Execution of Mayor Yin). He taught modern Chinese literature and culture for more than a quarter of a century. He lives in Lafayette, Colorado.

Sylvia Li-chun Lin is a Taiwanese-born Chinese-English translator and a former professor of Chinese Literature at the University of Colorado Boulder and the University of Notre Dame. She won the Lian Shih-chiu Literary Translation Prize and has translated the works of Liu Zhenyun, Bi Feiyu, Mo Yan, You Jin, among others.