SHORTLISTED FOR THE MAN BOOKER INTERNATIONAL PRIZE 2016

'One of China's greatest living authors and fiercest satirists' Guardian

In the ninety-ninth district of a sprawling labour camp, the Author, Musician, Scholar, Theologian and Technician - and hundreds just like them - are undergoing Re-education, to restore their revolutionary zeal and credentials. In charge of this process is the Child, who delights in draconian rules, monitoring behaviour and confiscating treasured books.

But when bad weather arrives, followed by the 'three bitter years', the intellectuals are abandoned by the regime and left on their own to survive. Divided into four narratives, The Four Books tells the story of the Great Famine, one of China's most devastating and controversial periods.

WINNER OF THE FRANZ KAFKA PRIZE 2014
NOMINATED FOR CZECH AWARD MAGNESIA LITERA 2014
HUA ZHONG WORLD CHINESE LITERATURE PRIZE 2013
FINALIST FOR THE MAN BOOKER INTERNATIONAL PRIZE 2013
WINNER OF THE HUA ZHONG WORLD CHINESE LITERATURE PRIZE 2013
SHORTLISTED FOR THE INDEPENDENT FOREIGN FICTION PRIZE 2012
SHORTLISTED FOR THE PRIX FEMINA ETRANGER 2012
SHORTLISTED FOR THE MAN ASIAN LITERARY PRIZE 2011
WINNER OF THE LAO SHE LITERATURE AWARD 2004
WINNER OF THE LU XUN AWARD 1997

One of China's most important novelists tackles the country's great remaining taboo -- the Great Famine, in which at least 45 million died

About the Author
Yan Lianke was born in 1958 in Henan Province, China. He is the author of numerous novels and short-story collections, including Serve the People!, Dream of Ding Village, Lenin's Kisses, The Four Books, The Explosion Chronicles, The Day the Sun Died and Hard Like Water. He has been awarded the Hua Zhong World Chinese Literature Prize, the Lao She Literary Award, the Dream of the Red Chamber Award and the Franz Kafka Prize. He has also been shortlisted for the International Man Booker Prize, the Principe de Asturias Prize for Letters, the Independent Foreign Fiction Prize, the FT/Oppenheimer Fund Emerging Voices Award and the prix Femina Etranger. The Day the Sun Died won the Dream of the Red Chamber Award for the World's Most Distinguished Novel in Chinese. He lives and writes in Beijing.

Reviews
Arch and playful... [Yan Lianke] deploys offbeat humour, anarchic set pieces and surreal imagery to shed new light on dark episodes from modern Chinese history... A brave, brilliant novel -- David Evans * Financial Times *
It's a Chinese novel hailed across the planet as a masterpiece, and I'm normally the first to resist such an imposition before I've even opened the thing - but for once, the hype doesn't go far enough... a devastating, brilliant slice of living history -- Kate Saunders * The Times *
No other writer in today's China has so consistently explored, dissected and mocked the past six and a half decades of Chinese communist rule... it is an extraordinary novel -- Isobel Hilton * Observer *
One of the masters of modern Chinese literature -- Jung Chang
Stark, powerful and compelling... A privilege * Independent *


Awards
Long-listed for Man Booker Prize for Fiction 2016 (UK).



Book Information
ISBN 9780099569497
Author Yan Lianke
Format Paperback
Page Count 352
Imprint Vintage
Publisher Vintage Publishing
Weight(grams) 240g
Dimensions(mm) 194mm * 128mm * 26mm