Qian Xiaohong is born into a sleepy Hunan village, where the New China rush towards development is a mere distant rumour. A buxom, naïve sixteen-year-old, she yearns to leave behind hometown scandal, and joins the mass migration to the bustling boomtown of Shenzhen. There, she must navigate dangerous encounters with ruthless bosses, jealous wives, sympathetic hookers, and corrupt policemen as she tries to find her place in the ever-evolving society.Hardship and tragedy are in no short supply as her journey takes her through a grinding succession of dead end jobs. To help her through this confusing maze, Xiaohong finds solace in the close ties she makes with the other migrant girls – the community of her fellow “northern girls” – who quickly and learn to rely on each other for humour and the enjoyment of life’s simple pleasures.A beautiful coming of age novel, Northern Girls explores the inner lives of a generation of young, rural Chinese women who embark on life-changing journeys in search of something better.

Northern Girls

Literature & Fiction

Keyi, Sheng

Contemporary

Penguin Global

At first glance, the Li family looks like any other: one grumpy grandfather, two overworked parents, four siblings, and one small house for them all to live in. Still, with a journalist in the mix, its members can hardly hide their countless misfortunes. Xiaohan, the youngest daughter, shares her family’s unconventional life and exposes the depth of what it means to live in contemporary China today. Through sketches dedicated to each person in the Li clan, she shows how those close to her are forced to find new ways to survive, like wild fruit falling from a tree.

Wild Fruit (Penguin Viking)

Literary

Viking China

Banned in China for its taboo allusions to the Tiananmen Square massacre, Sheng Keyi'sDeath Fugue is a lyrical and explosive dystopian satire that imagines a world of manufactured existence, the erasure of personal freedom, and the perils of governmental control. One morning a nine-story tower of excrement of unknown origin appears in the center of Dayang's capital, Beiping. The government swiftly scrubs the scene of all evidence and hands down its final word: Do not ask questions; dissent will be punished. But the crowd gathered in Round Square to witness the Tower Incident for themselves only grows and soon explodes in unrest. Poet Mengliu and his girlfriend Qizi join the uprising, but thousands disappear in the brutal crackdown that follows, including Qizi, the newly appointed protest leader. Mengliu abandons poetry and revolution but never gives up hope that Qizi may still be alive. Years later, on his annual journey in search of Qizi, Mengliu washes ashore in the idyllic country of Swan Valley, a world of dreamlike beauty, perfection, and youth. But the dream becomes a nightmare as he slowly begins to unravel the secrets of Swan Valley, discovering that the perfect society exists at a deep, inhumane cost. Boldly absurdist yet eerily prescient, award-winning author Sheng Keyi'sDeath Fugue barrels out of the void left by generations of state-imposed silence in modern-day China, where it remains banned from publication. It is a rogue artist's answer to a profound question of our times: What is the role of art after atrocity?

Death Fugue

Humor & Satire

Restless Books

Giramondo Publishing Co

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Books by Keyi, Sheng