Life

An essential masterwork from Chinese literary giant Lu Yaowinner of the Mao Dun Literature Prizeavailable for the first time in English. Lu Yao published only two novels before his untimely deathbut their extraordinary influence catapulted the author to the top tier of Chinese contemporary fiction, establishing him as one of the most widely read and respected figures in Chinese literature. In this first-ever translation of Lu Yaos Life, we meet Gao Jialin, a stubborn, idealistic, and ambitious young man from a small country village whose life is upended when corrupt local politics cost him his beloved job as a schoolteacher, prompting him to reject rural life and try to make it in the big city. Against the vivid, gritty backdrop of 1980s China, Lu Yao traces the proud and passionate Gao Jialins difficult path to professional, romantic, and personal fulfillmentor at least hard-won acceptance. With the emotional acuity and narrative mastery that secured his reputation as one of Chinas great novelists, Lu Yao paints a vivid, emotional, and unsparing portrait of contemporary Chinese life, seen through the eyes of a working-class man who refuses to be broken.