Ghost Cities
A Novel
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- Pedido anticipado
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- Se espera: 25 ago 2026
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- USD 14.99
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- Pedido anticipado
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- USD 14.99
Descripción editorial
From an award-winning international rising star, a dazzlingly inventive novel, spanning ancient and modern China, that interweaves stories of romance and showbiz
Inspired by the vacant, uninhabited megacities of China, Ghost Cities follows multiple narratives, including one in which a young man named Xiang is fired from his job as a translator at Sydney's Chinese Consulate after it is discovered he doesn't speak a word of Chinese and has been relying entirely on Google Translate for his work. The incident goes viral under the hashtag #BadChinese and attracts the attention of the eccentric film director Baby Bao, who uses Lu to attract press for his latest film. Bao’s movie, based on ancient legends, is to be filmed in one of China’s “ghost cities”.
How is his relocation to a ghost city connected to a parallel odyssey in which an ancient Emperor creates a thousand doubles of Himself? Or where a horny mountain gains sentience? Where a chess-playing automaton hides a deadly secret? Or a tale in which every book in the known Empire is destroyed—then recreated, page by page and book by book—all in the name of love and art?
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
A crackpot film director hires a fraudulent translator to work on an epic of imperial China in this clever sophomore novel from Lu (The Whitewash). When the Chinese consulate in Sydney discovers their employee of six months, Xiang Lu, can't actually speak or read Chinese, and that he's been relying on Google for his translation work, they fire him. The story goes viral, and he catches the attention of eccentric filmmaker Baby Bao, who's planning to shoot a 27-hour movie in the fictional Chinese ghost city of Port Man Tou. Hoping to drum up publicity, he hires Xiang as his translator, unconcerned about Xiang's poor language skills, and Xiang joins him in Port Man Tou, which Bao has populated with actors and converted into a set. Their story alternates with that of the subject of Bao's film: paranoid Emperor Lu Huang Du, who ascends the throne after his father chokes on a chicken bone. Among his many impulsive acts as ruler, he bans chickens across the empire and appoints an infant as the Imperial Taster. The author cannily holds up the emperor's story as a mirror to the actions of egotistical Bao, exploring themes of deception, unchecked power, and objective truth with great humor. Readers will find plenty to feast on.
