A mystifying climatic incongruity begins the award-winning novel
Lenin's Kisses--an absurdist, tragicomic masterpiece set in modern day
China. Nestled deep within the Balou mountains, spared from the
government's watchful eye, the harmonious people of Liven had enough
food and leisure to be fully content. But when their crops and
livelihood are obliterated by a seven-day snowstorm in the middle of a
sweltering summer, a county official arrives with a lucrative scheme
both to raise money for the district and boost his career. The majority
of the 197 villagers are disabled, and he convinces them to start a
traveling performance troupe highlighting such acts as One-Eye's
one-eyed needle threading. With the profits from this extraordinary
show, he intends to buy Lenin's embalmed corpse from Russia and install
it in a grand mausoleum to attract tourism, in the ultimate marriage of
capitalism and communism. However, the success of the Shuanghuai County
Special-Skills Performance Troupe comes at a serious price.
Yan Lianke, one of China's most distinguished writers--whose works often
push the envelope of his country's censorship system--delivers a
humorous, daring, and riveting portrait of the trappings and
consequences of greed and corruption at the heart of humanity.
