★ Author Ge Fei has been honored with both the Mao Dun Literature Prize and the Lu Xun Literature Prize, and currently serves as a professor at Tsinghua University, ranked No. 2 in Asia and No. 14 globally in the QS World University Rankings. Nobel laureate Mo Yan has lavishly praised Ge Fei as “the pride of China’s scholarly writers among novelists”!

★ The fragmented narrative technique rivals that of Faulkner’s “As I Lay Dying”, while the portrayal of individual destinies complements Yu Hua’s “Cries in the Drizzle”.

★ Using 42 translucent, moist fragments of memory as its medium, the novel employs an avant-garde literary style to sketch a panorama of 20th-century Chinese history, focusing on the fates of “marginalized individuals”.

★ Throughout our lives, we hover in the torrent of history, both eyewitnesses and bystanders. Caught between life and death, good and evil, heaven and hell, loyalty and betrayal, human beings nonetheless remain perpetually on the margins.

The novel takes the retrospective gaze of a “me” in the twilight of life as its narrative starting point, breaking with traditional linear storytelling. Through 42 discrete yet interconnected memory fragments, it pieces together the tumultuous trajectory of “my” life and the indelible marks of the times on it.

My childhood slipped by quietly amid estrangement and loneliness; my youth was forged in the crucible of a cruel and absurd era; and upon returning to my hometown, I found myself helplessly swept up in the surging tides of social change. Familiar or unfamiliar figures take turns appearing on the stage of “my” life—gentle Xiao Kou, enigmatic Hu Die, cunning Song Laizi… Their stories become inextricably entwined with “my” own, yet I always retain a sense of detachment, like an outsider, quietly observing every encounter and parting, every burst of laughter and every fading shadow of loss.

From multiple characters’ perspectives, the novel delicately portrays the precarious existence and fragile destinies of “marginalized individuals” amid sweeping historical transformations. These fragmented memories not only reflect the vast and turbulent historical changes that shaped 20th-century China but also, against a backdrop of joy and sorrow, union and separation, give rise to a transcendent clarity and serenity that transcends the mundane. In this way, readers from diverse cultural backgrounds can find emotional resonance in the individual fates depicted within the story.

Ge Fei

A leading contemporary Chinese scholar-writer, Ge Fei is a double winner of the Mao Dun Literature Prize and the Lu Xun Literature Prize. Currently a professor in the Department of Chinese Language and Literature at Tsinghua University, he has devoted decades to both literary creation and literary research, carving out a distinctive place for himself in China’s contemporary literary landscape. His style is characterized by resilience, elegance, precision, and intellectual acuity.

In 1987, Ge Fei burst onto the literary scene with his short story “The Lost Boat,” marking the beginning of his writing career. To date, he has produced a number of highly influential works, including the novels “The Enemy”, “On the Margin” and “The Banner of Desire”; the short- and medium-length story collections “The Lost Boat” and “Feelings in the Rainy Season”; as well as critical and essayistic works such as “A Study of Narrative in Fiction”, “Ge Fei’s Prose,” and “An Invitation to Literature.” These writings showcase his profound scholarly grounding and versatile creative talent.

Ge Fei’s works have earned him numerous prestigious literary awards. “The Jiangnan Trilogy” won the 9th Mao Dun Literature Prize; “The Invisible Cloak” was awarded the 6th Lu Xun Literature Prize for Novellas; and “Looking Forward to the Spring Breeze” received the Annual Literary Award. He has also been honored with the 2004 Chinese-language Literature Media Award for Outstanding Achievement, first place on the 2004 Long Fiction Bestsellers List, the 2nd Dingjun Biennial Literary Award of the 21st Century, first place in the literature category of the 3rd China Book Power List, and the 2011 “Beijing News” Tribute Book in the literature category, among many other accolades. His work has consistently earned high praise from both the literary establishment and readers alike.

Road
Mai Village
I lost my father
Xiao Kou
Shadow
Xu Fuguan
Flowers
I got married
Butterfly
Shouting
I came to Xinyang
Zhongyue Tower
I went to the battlefield for the first time
Kite
The winter of 1925
Xiao Kou
Endurance
Death
Heading south
Flowers
Eastern Post Station
Xiaoqin
Butterfly
Mai Village
Zhongyue Tower
Cuckoo
1949
Xu Fuguan
Yue River
Beehive
Song Laizi
Butterfly
Final destination
Verdict
Zhongyue Tower
May
Xiao Kou
Song Laizi
Cuckoo
Zhongyue Tower
Butterfly
The sound of silence