In the provincial town of Muddy Waters in China, a young woman named Gu Shan is sentenced to death for her loss of faith in Communism. She is twenty-eight years old and has already spent ten years in prison. The citizens stage a protest after her death and, over the following six weeks, the town goes through uncertainty, hope and fear until eventually the rebellion is brutally suppressed. They are all taken on a painful journey, from one young woman′s death to another.
We follow the pain of Gu Shan′s parents, the hope and fear of the leaders of the protest and their families. Even those who seem unconnected to the tragedy - an eleven-year-old boy seeking fame and glory, a nineteen-year-old village idiot in love with a young and deformed girl, an old couple making a living by scavenging the town′s garbage cans - are caught up in a remorseless turn of events.
Yiyun Li′s novel is based on the true story which took place in China in 1979.
Yiyun Li
Gold Boy, Emerald Girl
$27.95$14.95 – Paperback book / Fourth Estate
The stories in this collection, like the stories in A THOUSAND YEARS OF GOOD PRAYERS , are mostly set in China. The country portrayed here is the China of the 21st century, where economic development has led to new situa... Buy or find out more →
The Vagrants
$24.99 – Paperback book / Fourth Estate
In the provincial town of Muddy Waters in China, a young woman named Gu Shan is sentenced to death for her loss of faith in Communism. She is twenty-eight years old and has already spent ten years in prison. The citizens... Buy or find out more →
A Thousand Years Of Good Prayers
$24.99 – Paperback book / Harper Collins
In this extraordinary first collection, Yiyun Li brings us a modern China facing up to a complex history of repression and guilt. In 'Immortality', winner of the Paris Review prize, a young man bears a striking resemblan... Buy or find out more →
The Vagrants
$0.00 – Paperback book / Harper Collins
In the provincial town of Muddy Waters in China‚ a young woman named Gu Shan is sentenced to death for her loss of faith in Communism. She is twenty−eight years old and has already spent ten years in prison. The citizens... Buy or find out more →
The Vagrants (Unabridged Audio CD)
$34.95 – Compact disc / Bolinda
Brilliant and illuminating, this astonishing debut novel by the award-winning writer Yiyun Li is set in China in the late 1970s, when Beijing was rocked by the Democratic Wall Movement, an anti-Communist groundswell desi... Buy or find out more →