From the acclaimed author of Brothers and China in Ten Words here is
Yu Hua's unflinching portrait of life under Chairman Mao. A cart-pusher
in a silk mill, Xu Sanguan augments his meager salary with regular
visits to the local blood chief. His visits become lethally frequent as
he struggles to provide for his wife and three sons at the height of the
Cultural Revolution. Shattered to discover that his favorite son was
actually born of a liaison between his wife and a neighbor, he suffers
his greatest indignity, while his wife is publicly scorned as a
prostitute. Although the poverty and betrayals of Mao's regime have
drained him, Xu Sanguan ultimately finds strength in the blood ties of
his family. With rare emotional intensity, grippingly raw descriptions
of place and time, and clear-eyed compassion, Yu Hua gives us a stunning
tapestry of human life in the grave particulars of one man's days.