'A long-time confidante of the rain and snow, I am ninety years old. The rain and snow have weathered me, and I too have weathered them'

At the end of the twentieth century an old woman sits among the birch trees and reflects on the joys and tragedies that have befallen her people. A member of the Evenki tribe who wander the forests of north-eastern China, hers was a life lived in close sympathy with nature at its most beautiful and cruel.

Then, in the 1930s, the intimate, secluded world of the tribe is shattered when the Japanese army invades China. The Evenki cannot avoid being pulled into the brutal conflict that marks the beginning of the end of life as they know it.

'An atmospheric modern folk-tale, the saga of the Evenki clan of Inner Mongolia - nomadic reindeer herders whose traditional life alongside the Argun river endured unchanged for centuries... This is a fitting tribute to the Evenki by a writer of rare talent' Financial Times

VINTAGE EARTH is a collection of novels to transform our relationship with the natural world. Each one is a work of creative activism, a blast of fresh air, a seed from which change can grow. The books in this series reconnect us to the planet we inhabit - and must protect. Discover great writing on the most urgent story of our times.

About the Author

Chi Zijian (Author)
Chi Zijian was born in Mohe in 1964. She started writing while at school and had her first story published in Northern Literature magazine when she was at college. She is the only writer to have won the Lu Xun Literary Award three times. The Last Quarter of the Moon also won the Mao Dun Literary Award.

Her work has been translated into many languages.

Bruce Humes (Translator)
Keen to experience socialism with Chinese characteristics back in the 1980s, Bruce Humes first took a detour to Taipei and Hong Kong but went on to reside in Shanghai, Kunming and Shenzhen. He has translated three contemporary novels from the Chinese: The Last Quarter of the Moon (Chi Zijian), Shanghai Baby (Wei Hui), and Confessions of a Jade Lord (Alat Asem). Most recently he has concentrated on Tibetan, Uyghur and Mongol stories.

Reviews
Zijian has an extraordinary gift for storytelling and her steely narrator is a true heroine, surviving war and encroaching modernity. Simply magnificent * Times *


Awards
Long-listed for Mountain Fiction & Poetry, Banff Mountin Book Competition 2014 (UK).



Book Information
ISBN 9781784877897
Author Chi Zijian
Format Paperback
Page Count 384
Imprint Vintage Classics
Publisher Vintage Publishing
Weight(grams) 311g
Dimensions(mm) 198mm * 129mm * 25mm