Serve the People!

· Open Road + Grove/Atlantic
Ebook
225
Pages
Eligible

About this ebook

A satirical novel set in 1967 China from the Franz Kafka Prize-winning author of Lenin's Kiss—"one of China's greatest living authors" ( The Guardian).

Serve the People! is the story of a forbidden love affair between Liu Lian, the young wife of a Division Commander in Communist China, and a servant in her household, Wu Dawang. Left to idle at home while her husband furthers the revolution, Liu Lian establishes a rule for her orderly: whenever the household's wooden Serve the People! sign is removed from its usual place on the dinner table and placed elsewhere, Wu Dawang is to stop what he is doing and attend to her needs upstairs. What follows is a "steamy and subversive" story and comic satire on Mao's slogan and the political and sexual taboos of his regime ( The Guardian).

Originally banned in China, Serve the People! is the first work from Yan Lianke to be translated into English, and "a scathing sendup of life in 1960s China during the chaos of the country's Cultural Revolution" ( LA Times).
A satirical novel set in 1967 China from the Franz Kafka Prize-winning author of Lenin's Kiss—"one of China's greatest living authors" ( The Guardian). Serve the People! is the story of a forbidden love affair between Liu Lian, the young wife of a Division Commander in Communist China, and a se...

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About the author

Yan Lianke was born in 1958 in Henan Province, China. Lianke is the author of many novels and short-story collections, and has won China’s two top literary awards, the Lu Xun in 2000 for Nian, yue, ri (The Year, the Month, the Day), and the Lao She in 2004 for Shouhuo (Pleasure).
Yan Lianke was born in 1958 in Henan Province, China. Lianke is the author of many novels and short-story collections, and has won China’s two top literary awards, the Lu Xun in 2000 for Nian, yue, ri (The Year, the Month, the Day), and the Lao She in 2004 for Shouhuo (Pleasure).

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