Criminal Lu Yanshi

Criminal Lu Yanshi relates the life and times of a Chinese intellectual in the 20th Century. Lu Yanshi, a prodigy from a wealthy Shanghai family, earns a Ph.D. in the United States and sows his wild oats there but cannot escape his stifling social milieu, his overbearing stepmother and his forced marriage to her niece. As war and revolution engulf China, Lu Yanshi speaks out for intellectual integrity and freedom of thought - and pays the price for it in prison and labor camp.While incarcerated, he looks back on his life and realizes that his spurned wife was the true love of his life, and he longs to return to her. 

This novel is based on the life experiences of the author's paternal grandfather and maternal step-grandfather. It served as the inspiration for two films by famous Chinese director Zhang Yimou: Coming Home and One Second.

This novel sold over a million copies in its original Chinese edition plus Japanese and Korean translations. The renowned artist Ai Weiwei designed the front cover for this English-language edition.