House number nine
14.99 €
In stock
House number nine
14.99 €
A collection of sketches based on the author's memories of growing up in China during the Cultural Revolution: first as a small boy in Beijing, then as a teenager exiled to the countryside.
In the first part, the narrator draws scenes from his childhood in the Chinese capital, starting in 1966. Together with his friends, he sets out to get pieces of red cloth to tie to their hands and form his own Red Guard unit. The tragedies of many people who fell victim to the regime seem less dramatic in the perception of a child, more concerned with his own experiences.
The second half of the book covers the years 1969–1977, when the hero, along with a group of boys, goes to the Great Northern Wasteland to undergo re-education through labor. Death becomes part of everyday life, and no one pays attention to it anymore. Is there a way out of this vicious circle?
Zou poetically describes the side of the "cultural revolution" that is least talked about: the routine of grief and the waste of youth, as well as the black humor that inevitably accompanies desperate situations.
Booker International Prize Longlist (2023)
In the first part, the narrator draws scenes from his childhood in the Chinese capital, starting in 1966. Together with his friends, he sets out to get pieces of red cloth to tie to their hands and form his own Red Guard unit. The tragedies of many people who fell victim to the regime seem less dramatic in the perception of a child, more concerned with his own experiences.
The second half of the book covers the years 1969–1977, when the hero, along with a group of boys, goes to the Great Northern Wasteland to undergo re-education through labor. Death becomes part of everyday life, and no one pays attention to it anymore. Is there a way out of this vicious circle?
Zou poetically describes the side of the "cultural revolution" that is least talked about: the routine of grief and the waste of youth, as well as the black humor that inevitably accompanies desperate situations.
Booker International Prize Longlist (2023)
See also:
- All books by the publisher
- All books by the author