Two Lives
Tales of Life, Love and Crime. Stories from China.
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- $8.99
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- $8.99
Publisher Description
Seven stories, seven whispers into the ears of life: A Yi’s unexpected twists of crime burst from the everyday, with glimpses of romance distorted by the weaknesses of human motive. A Yi employs his forensic skills to offer a series of portraits of modern life, both uniquely Chinese, and universal in their themes. His years as a police officer serve him well as he teases the truth from simple observation, now brought into the English language in a masterful translation by Alex Woodend. The stories include Two Lives, Attic, Spring, Bach, Predator. The first in the new Flame Tree Press series, Stories from China.
FLAME TREE PRESS is the new fiction imprint of Flame Tree Publishing. Launching in 2018 the list brings together brilliant new authors and the more established; the award winners, and exciting, original voices.
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
Repellent characters and situations fill the seven tales in the lamentable inaugural volume of the Stories from China series. In the title story, Zhou Lingtong, who failed his college entrance exams multiple times and whose attempt to become a monk is rejected, takes out his frustration and rage on a "classy woman" by raping her. Shortly after evading arrest, Zhou witnesses two men beating a "horse-faced" woman. With no explanation for a shift in his moral compass, Zhou intervenes, rescuing the victim, who gives him her phone number and tells him to call if he's ever in need. When he does so, his life is turned around. Yi's decision to include a revisionist view of his sex crime is off-putting, and nothing in the prose, plot, or characterizations distinguishes this cryptic story of violence and unmerited redemption. The other entries, including one featuring paragraphs of crossed-out text listing language zones and a lengthy laundry list of things to buy, are also likely to result in head-scratching or boredom. Even fans of amoral leads will be unimpressed.
