A Thousand Years of Good Prayers

A Thousand Years of Good Prayers

by YiyunLi (Author)

Synopsis

Brilliant and original, "A Thousand Years of Good Prayers" introduces a remarkable first collection of stories about China from an author set to be a major literary talent. In this extraordinary first collection, Yiyun Li brings us a modern China facing up to a complex history of repression and guilt. In 'Immortality', a young man bears a striking resemblance to the dictator, and so finds a strange kind of calling. In 'Extra', first published in the New Yorker, a Chinese woman, alone in middle age, befriends a young boy who has become an outcast in a remote country school. In their friendship, we see how love can begin to overcome the strictures that dominate their lives. In turn horrifying and breathtakingly lyrical, Yiyun Li, a new and talented young Chinese writer, confronts the silence that dominated the history of her country, and illuminates how mythology, politics, history and culture intersect with personality. She leaves us with an enduring vision of a country undergoing tremendous change.

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More Information

Format: Hardcover
Pages: 224
Edition: First Edition
Publisher: Fourth Estate
Published: 03 Jan 2006

ISBN 10: 0007196628
ISBN 13: 9780007196623
Prizes: Winner of Frank O'Connor International Short Story Award 2005. Shortlisted for Orange Award for New Writers 2006.

Author Bio
Yiyun Li grew up in Beijing, China, and came to the Unites States in 1996. She is the recipient of several prizes for her writing and an M.F.A. from The University of Iowa Writers' Workshop, Li's stories have been published in The New Yorker, The Paris Review and elsewhere. She lives in Iowa City with her husband and their two sons.