- Paperback: 352 pages
- Publisher: Fourth Estate (5 Feb 2009)
- Language English
- ISBN-10: 0007299095
- ISBN-13: 978-0007299096
- Average Customer Review: 4.5 out of 5 stars See all reviews (12 customer reviews)
- Amazon Bestsellers Rank: 3,350,765 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
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More About the Author
Product Description
Review
Praise for Yiyun Li:
‘She is utterly at home in the short story as shaped by Chekhov and Maupassant, in the tones currently used by William Trevor or Alice Munro. Her own talent is to deal with people who have no obvious power or importance, who have been disappointed in small ways which Li manages to make seem heart-wrenching and full of strange resonance…a writer of great but quiet ambition…What concerns her most is the large matter of love, in all its twists and turns, and time itself, and how little we reckon with it, and disappointment in all its strange variations, and levels of deep emotion and attachment buried in silence and misunderstanding.’ Colm Toibin, New York Review of Books
‘Li’s writing is beautifully spare and controlled.’ Times
'Yiyun's confidence as a storyteller lends her fiction a traditional air, but there's nothing old fashioned about her perspective…When I've sampled other recent Chinese writing, I've had a sense of western publishers being seduced by the novelty of it all, snapping up authors with dramatic histories and slim talents. Yiyun is the real deal…Yiyun has the talent, the vision and the respect for life's insoluble mysteries to be a truly fine writer.’ Michel Faber, Guardian
'Li has a remarkable talent for telling the story of the whole of China through apparently insignificant lives.' New Statesman
'Great narrative skill…demonstrates that the best way to learn about people in a foreign culture is through good fiction.’ Irish Times
Product Description
The much-anticipated first novel from the prize-winning Chinese writer, acclaimed in the Guardian by Michel Faber as having ‘the talent, the vision and the respect for life's insoluble mysteries to be a truly fine writer.’
In the provincial town of Muddy Waters in China, a young woman named Gu Shan is sentenced to death for her loss of faith in Communism. She is twenty-eight years old and has already spent ten years in prison. The citizens stage a protest after her death and, over the following six weeks, the town goes through uncertainty, hope, and fear until eventually the rebellion is brutally suppressed. Sumei, a mother of a young child, is sentenced to death as an anti-Communist activist. They are all taken on a painful journey; from one young woman's death to another.
We follow the pain of Gu Shan's parents, the hope and fear of the leaders of the protest and their families. Even those who seem unconnected to the tragedy – an eleven-year-old boy seeking fame and glory, a nineteen-year-old village idiot in love with a young and deformed girl, and old couple making a living by scavenging the town's garbage cans – are caught up in remorseless turn of events.
Yiyun Li's novel is based on the true story which took place in China in 1979.
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Customer Reviews
Most Helpful Customer Reviews
19 of 19 people found the following review helpful
Format:Paperback
This is definitely an author to watch - she writes in a sparse style that is both raw and powerful. Her characters are varied and strong, interacting with one another in constantly interconnecting circles. The build-up of the narrative was excellent, leading us inexorably to the final denouement.
The book is set in 1979, after the death of Mao. It is based around a factual event - the denunciation and execution of 28 year old Gu-Shan, who has been accused of counterrevolutionary activity and sentenced to 10 years imprisonment followed by death. This event affected many people in the town of Muddy River - from Shan's parents through to the radio announcer responsible for whipping up the crowds, to a young, deformed girl who unknowingly watches while the Shan's vocal chords are cut to prevent her from speaking out. As the ripples travel further, other residents of the town become drawn in. A movement to clear Shan's name begins to build momentum and the fall-out from this has far reaching effects.
Recommended.
The book is set in 1979, after the death of Mao. It is based around a factual event - the denunciation and execution of 28 year old Gu-Shan, who has been accused of counterrevolutionary activity and sentenced to 10 years imprisonment followed by death. This event affected many people in the town of Muddy River - from Shan's parents through to the radio announcer responsible for whipping up the crowds, to a young, deformed girl who unknowingly watches while the Shan's vocal chords are cut to prevent her from speaking out. As the ripples travel further, other residents of the town become drawn in. A movement to clear Shan's name begins to build momentum and the fall-out from this has far reaching effects.
Recommended.
7 of 7 people found the following review helpful
Format:Paperback
Yiyun Li's sublime collection of short stories, her debut, "A Thousand Years of Good Prayers", won more awards than most prolific authors would be chuffed to bits with for their entire output. "The Vagrants" is her first novel. It follows the interwoven lives of several outsider-type characters living in a small provincial town, following the execution of a young woman for anti-government sentiments. Rather than plop some lame, unhelpful superlative in this space, I urge you to read this magnificent, moving novel by a truly talented author.
4 of 4 people found the following review helpful
Format:Paperback
It may seem odd to describe this book as beautifully written when it is about the execution of a young woman as a "counterrevolutionary" and the dire political consequences suffered by those who protest against the execution. This is a novel about fear and poverty and oppression, and about injustice, yet The Vagrants is perceptive, incisive, completely absorbing and, yes, beautifully written, illuminating the thoughts and motivations of simple village people who care about justice. It is written in a way that makes even the simplest and most marginalised of people of the town of Muddy River significant and worth caring about.
I was drawn in from the start. Every character in Muddy River from teacher Gu and his wife, the parents of the executed prisoner who are devastated by their daughter's disgrace, to Nini, the deformed child in a poor family who is able to find love amid the turmoil, as well as Bashi, a strange child-man who himself admits has a screw loose, are all perfectly rendered, with minute, telling details that bring out their oddness but also their humanity. However poor or downtrodden, Yiyun Li is able to convince us that these people matter.
Political oppression is a significant theme. The Vagrants is set in the 1970s, era of the Democracy Wall movement which spurred China's first student dissidents. The stirring of dissent, the courage to question the official version of events, yet the consequences of doing so is the tragedy of Muddy River. The execution is based on true events but Yiyun Li's talent lies in helping us realise that there are many towns like Muddy River throughout China. An exceptional, illuminating book and an author to watch.
I was drawn in from the start. Every character in Muddy River from teacher Gu and his wife, the parents of the executed prisoner who are devastated by their daughter's disgrace, to Nini, the deformed child in a poor family who is able to find love amid the turmoil, as well as Bashi, a strange child-man who himself admits has a screw loose, are all perfectly rendered, with minute, telling details that bring out their oddness but also their humanity. However poor or downtrodden, Yiyun Li is able to convince us that these people matter.
Political oppression is a significant theme. The Vagrants is set in the 1970s, era of the Democracy Wall movement which spurred China's first student dissidents. The stirring of dissent, the courage to question the official version of events, yet the consequences of doing so is the tragedy of Muddy River. The execution is based on true events but Yiyun Li's talent lies in helping us realise that there are many towns like Muddy River throughout China. An exceptional, illuminating book and an author to watch.
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Most Recent Customer Reviews
damning panaroma of China's not so distant madness
Through the eyes of a diverse range of residents of a small city in China, this powerful book shows how the terror and madness of totalitarian China could destroy lives - young or... Read more
Published 6 months ago by Ben P
Nobody should be punished because of what he thinks
The main theme of this book is political dissidence in a country where a small bunch of people has an (open or hidden) power monopoly, like here in China after the Cultural... Read more
Published 9 months ago by Luc REYNAERT
Totally engaging
This is a wonderful and tragic novel which grips from start to finish. There is a lot of believable detail and the characters are well-developed. Read more
Published 12 months ago by james carmichael
Left me speechless.
This is Yiyun Li's second book, she won the Guardian First Book Award for her debut `A Thousand Years of Good Prayers',A Thousand Years of Good Prayers and after reading this I am... Read more
Published 14 months ago by Tommy D
Dissapointing
I have to say I was quite dissapointed by this book. Maybe it was because there were too many characters and I just couldn't get into it. Read more
Published 14 months ago by Elimb
An important novel about China
Any reader interested in post-Mao politics in China will find this novel engrossing. It focuses on the lives of certain residents in Muddy River after 1975. Read more
Published 17 months ago by Caz Mysteries
haunting, dark, full of irony and painfully realistic
Many books have been written about people's lives affected by the cultural revolution in communist China, but Yiyun Li's portrayals stood out for me. Read more
Published 18 months ago by geek in heels
An excellent portrayal of the darker side of Communism
A very strong first novel which paints a vivid and often disturbing picture of life in Communist China after the Cultural Revolution. Read more
Published on 22 Feb 2010 by BookWorm
Important and Great Read
This is a touh book in may ways, not for the faint hearted or light reading. Having said that it is a great book, eye opening at the least. Read more
Published on 30 Sep 2009 by Mr. M. Murphy
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