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Lenin's Kisses

Lenin's Kisses

by YanLianke (Author), Carlos Rojas (Translator)

  • Used

    Hardcover 2013

    $5.51
Synopsis

Deep within the Balou mountains lies a small rural town populated by disabled people. Blind, deaf and disfigured, the 197 citizens of the Village of Liven have until now enjoyed a peaceful, mutually supportive life out of sight and mind of the government. But when an unseasonal snowstorm wipes out that year's crops, a county official dreams up a scheme that will raise money for the district and boost his career. He convinces the villagers to set up a travelling freak-show, to include Blind Tonghua's Acute Listening Act, Guess the Age of the Old Man, Deafman Ma's Firecrackers-on-the-Ear and One-Eye's Needle Threading. With the money, he intends to buy Lenin's embalmed corpse from an ailing Russia and install it in a splendid mausoleum in the mountains to attract tourism to this sleepy district. However, as we all know, even the best intentions can go awry. Provocative and funny, Lenin's Kisses melds fable, history and satire into a fantastical cautionary tale about contemporary China's all-consuming desire for power and wealth.

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More Information

Format: Hardcover
 Pages: 512
 Publisher: Chatto & Windus
Published: 07 Feb 2013
ISBN 10: 0701188073
ISBN 13: 9780701188078
Book Overview: 'One of China's greatest living authors and fiercest satirists' (Guardian)

Media Reviews
Yan Lianke is one of China's most interesting writers and a master of imaginative satire -- Isabel Hilton Guardian The award-winning novelist Yan Lianke is one of China's most interesting writers and a master of imaginative satire. His work is animated by an affectionate loyalty to his peasant origins... and fierce anger over the political abuses of the regime... [this] innovative novel, with its wit, humanity and satire, sets a provocative example -- Isabel Hilton Guardian Yan's postmodern cartoon of the Communist dream caving to run-amok capitalism is fiendishly clever New York Times Book Review Brilliantly acerbic plot... Yan lets the irony of his scenario... speak for itself; his deadpan presentation makes the satire bite all the harder -- Julia Lovell Spectator A hugely ambitious political fable... A great ripping yarn, but also the kind of raw literary qualities that can only emanate from a non-European tradition -- Xiaolu Guo Independent
Author Bio
Yan Lianke was born in 1958 in Henan Province, China. He is the author of numerous novels and short-story collections, including Serve the People!, Dream of Ding Village and Lenin's Kisses. He is the winner of an array of literary awards, including China's Lao She, Lu Xun and Hua Zhong World Chinese Literature Prize. In 2014 was awarded the prestigious Franz Kafka Book Prize, whose previous winners include Vaclav Havel, John Banville, Harold Pinter, Haruki Murakami and Philip Roth. He has also been shorlisted for the Man Booker International Prize and the Independent Foreign Fiction Prize. He currently lives and writes in Beijing.