Set in famine-stricken 1930s China, Rice chronicles the complete debasement of a city family after it takes in a young man named Five Dragons, a starving wanderer from the provinces whose desire for power and sex is insatiable. In this mesmerizing novel, Su Tong, China's most provocative young writer, explores the connections between hunger, sexuality, and brutality. Rice is used as food and currency, as an aphrodisiac and an implement of sexual torture, as a weapon for murder and a symbol of everything good. Lush and sensual, combining a strange comedy with a dark undercurrent of violence, and written in hypnotically beautiful prose, Rice is a novel of startling richness and furious creative energy.

Rice: A Novel

Literature & Fiction

Tong, Su

Contemporary

Harper-perennial

The brutal realities of the dark places Su Tong depicts in this collection of novellas set in 1930s provincial China -- worlds of prostitution, poverty, and drug addiction -- belie his prose of stunning and simplebeauty. The title novella, "Raise the Red Lantern," which became a critically acclaimed film, tells the story of Lotus, a young woman whose father's suicide forces her to become the concubine of a wealthy merchant. Crushed by loneliness, despair, and cruel treatment, Lotus finds her descent into insanity both a weapon and a refuge.
"Nineteen Thirty-Four Escapes" is an account of a family's struggles during one momentous year; plagued by disease, death, and the shady promise of life in a larger town, the family slowly disintegrates.
Finally, "Opium Family" details the last years of a landowning clan whose demise is brought about by corruption, lust, and treachery -- fruits of the insidious crop they harvest.

Raise the Red Lantern: Three Novellas

United States

William Morrow Paperbacks

From the bestselling Chinese author of RAISE THE RED LANTERN Set during the fall-out of the Cultural Revolution, these bizarre and delicate stories capture the collision of the old China of vanished dynasties, with communism and today's tiger economy.The mad woman on the bridge wears a historical gown which she refuses to take off. In the height of summer she stands madly on the bridge. Until a young female doctor, bewitched by the beauty of the mad woman's dress, plots to take it from her, with tragic consequences.

Madwoman on the Bridge

Genre Fiction

Black Swan.

1 NEW SOFTCOVER BOOK WITH DUST COVER

My Life As Emperor

Faber&Faber

This is the tale of Lotus and three other concubines who are competing for the sexual attentions of their master in a 1930s rural clan house. Lotus, the fourth mistress, is defiant and presumptuous and has the audacity to be good at, and enjoy sex.

Literary

a touchstone book

Knopf Canada welcomes one of China’s most acclaimed and bestselling writers–author of Raise the Red Lantern–to the list with a fascinating retelling of a magical story–already an international bestseller in China and Europe. Through Binu’s extraordinary story, Su Tong illuminates one of China’s most magical myths. In Peach village, crying is forbidden. But as a child, Binu never learnt to hide her tears. Shunned by the villagers, she faces a bleak future until she meets the man she will marry, Qiliang. A few years after their marriage, Qiliang disappears. Binu learns that he has been transported hundreds of miles and forced to labour on a project of terrifying ambition and scale–the building of the Great Wall. Inspired by her love for her husband, Binu sets out on an extraordinary journey across Great Swallow Mountain, with only a blind frog for company. What follows is an unforgettable story of passion, hardship and magical adventure.

Binu and the Great Wall: The Myth of Meng

World Literature

Knopf Canada

This is the tale of Lotus and three other concubines who are competing for the sexual attentions of their master in a 1930s rural clan house. Lotus, the fourth mistress, is defiant and presumptuous and has the audacity to be good at, and enjoy sex.

Raise the Red Lantern

Scribner

Four concubines compete for the sexual attentions of their master in a stifling 1930s rural clan house in a collection of novellas that explore relationships between women and men. 25,000 first printing. $15,000 ad/promo.

Su, Tong

William Morrow & Co.

China, early 1950s- Two friends find themselves on their way to a re-education camp for those not adhering to the standards of the new order - working girls, madams, misfits. Who would have anticipated that Petulia, stripped of her silk gowns, would be forced to denounce the Red Delight Pavilion? Or believed that Autumn Grace would cry in desperation as nuns shave off her locks? After years working side-by-side, their sudden goodbye was the first sign of a changing society. Still, the scent of rouge filling their memories keeps them close, despite the twists and turns that life throws at them. Until one day, the promise of love and stability becomes a temptation neither can deny. . .

Petulia's Rouge Tin (Penguin Specials)

Penguin Australia

In Peach village, crying is forbidden, but as a child, Binu never learnt to hide her tears. Shunned by the villagers, she faced a bleak future, until she met Qiliang, an orphan who offered her his hand in marriage.

Binu And The Great Wall

Isis Large Print Books

See the best price to sell, buy, or rent books by Tong, Su. BookScouter helps to compare book prices from 25+ online bookstores and 30+ buyback vendors with a single search.

Books by Tong, Su

See the best price to sell, buy, or rent books by Tong, Su. BookScouter helps to compare book prices from 25+ online bookstores and 30+ buyback vendors with a single search.

Rice: A Novel

Raise the Red Lantern: Three Novellas

Madwoman on the Bridge

My Life As Emperor

Raise the Red Lantern: Three Novellas

Binu and the Great Wall: The Myth of Meng

Raise the Red Lantern

Raise the Red Lantern: Three Novellas

Petulia's Rouge Tin (Penguin Specials)

Binu And The Great Wall