City of Fiction
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- S/ 49.90
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- S/ 49.90
Descripción editorial
"Engrossing…. a terrifically entertaining novel."--Irish Times
In the early 20th century, China is a land undergoing a momentous social and cultural shift, with a thousand-year-old empire crumbling and the nation on the brink of modernity. Against this backdrop, a quiet man from the North embarks on a perilous journey to a Southern city in the grip of a savage snowstorm. He carries with him a newborn baby: he is looking for the child's mother and a city that isn't there.
This is a story of two people: a man who finds unexpected success after having journeyed to the hometown of the woman who abandoned him; and the woman he is searching for, who mysteriously disappeared to embark on her own eventful journey. This is a story about vanished crafts and ancient customs, about violence, love, and friendship. Above all, it's a story about change and about storytelling itself, full of vivid characters and surprising twists—an epic tale, as inexorable as time itself and as gripping as a classic adventure story.
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
Yu (To Live) unfurls a wrenching if diffuse tragedy of a young landowner and his mysterious bride as they navigate the chaotic fall of the Qing empire in early 20th-century China. Lin Xiangfu, a kind and tolerant owner of a woodworking business, marries the mysterious Xiaomei, who has wandered into his northern village. Xiaomei then disappears along with half of his fortune. She briefly returns, heavily pregnant with Xiangfu's child, only to flee again after giving birth to their daughter, whom she leaves behind. Xiangfu and the unnamed infant wander south in search of Xiaomei, arriving in the village of Xizhen just before a tornado. After the dust settles, Xiangfu decides to stay and raise his daughter there, having come to believe Xiaomei had hailed from Xizhen, despite having given him the name of another village. While awaiting her return, Xiangfu and the girl endure more trials, including an 18-day blizzard. The story then detours into tales of war and banditry, delivered in gratuitously gory detail and wandering far afield from Xiangfu's story line. Xiaomei returns in the novel's second half, and the reader learns the sad story of what initially led her to Xiangfu and the tragedy surrounding her absence. The revelations are staggering, but the narrative loses momentum during its long and meandering middle stretch. It doesn't quite scale the heights of Yu's best work.
