★ By a Hans Christian Andersen Laureate: Written by Cao Wenxuan, the first Chinese author to win this prestigious award in 2016. His works have been translated into over 40 languages and published in more than 70 countries.
★ Proven Market Success: The series has sold over 1.5 million copies! Focusing on themes of love, courage, dignity, and growth, it is deeply humane and uniquely poetic. As the HCAA jury praised, he writes with "a poetic, water-like touch, capturing real and sorrowful moments of life."

★ Rights Already Sold: Arabic.
★ Cao Wenxuan's new full-length novel of 2022! Combining historical fiction with an animal's perspective, this book is the first to tell the legendary story of Su Wu tending sheep entirely from the first-person point of view of a "sheep."
★ Breaking away from classic single-narrative history, the author turns his gaze to the overlooked crevices and details of history—the struggle against nature, battles with wild beasts, and the contest with endless loneliness—building a vivid and rich historical world.
★ Continuing his signature poetic language, the author paints the magnificent, ever-changing scenery of the northern steppes. This offers readers an ultimate aesthetic experience, making the work not only visually grand but also deeply moving and emotionally powerful.

Series Overview (8 Volumes)
Draft Through the Alley, The Bat Aroma, The Firefly King, Grass Shoe Bay, In Search of a Bird, A City Without Streets, Su Wu Tends Sheep, Who Took My Grandpa Away

When Su Wu, an envoy of the Han Dynasty, was sent to the Xiongnu tribe, he refused to surrender to the Xiongnu king. As a result, he was exiled to the desolate shores of Lake Baikal (the Northern Sea) to tend sheep. The king gave Su Wu 101 rams, telling him that he could only return to the Han Dynasty when the rams gave birth to lambs.
Leading the 101 rams to the Northern Sea, Su Wu faced not only the harsh environment, ferocious beasts, and severe lack of food and clothing, but also boundless, endless loneliness. Yet, relying on his wisdom and unyielding will, he tenaciously overcame it all. He reclaimed wasteland for farming, built boats to catch fish, repaired his dwelling, and sheared wool... turning his destitute days into a life of quiet resilience and purpose. Day after day, year after year, Su Wu finally waited for the moment he could return to his homeland.

Cao Wenxuan
Member of the Council of the China Writers Association; Professor and Doctoral Supervisor at Peking University.
Winner of the Hans Christian Andersen Award (April 2016) and the Outstanding Chinese Influencing the World Award (January 2017).
Recipient of over 50 major literary awards, including the National Book Award, the Chinese Government Award, the National Outstanding Children's Literature Award, and the Gold Award of the Soong Ching-ling Children's Literature Award.
His works have been translated into English, French, German, Russian, Greek, Japanese, Korean, Swedish, Danish, Spanish, Portuguese, Italian, Romanian, Serbian, Arabic, Persian, and more.

Notable Novels: Straw House, Root Bird, Ximi, Bronze and Sunflower, Fire Mark, as well as the King's Book series, My Son Pika series, and Ding Ding Dang Dang series.
Selected Literary Collections: The Melancholy Pastoral, The Red Gourd, Following Eternity, The Sweet Orange Tree, etc.
Academic Works: A Study of Literary Phenomena in China in the 1980s, The Second World: A Philosophical Interpretation of Literature and Art, A Study of Literary Phenomena in China at the End of the 20th Century, The Door of Fiction, etc.