"Masterly... Mo Yan transforms the wreckage of everyday life into something useful, cheering, and rare."

--NEW YORK TIMES BOOK REVIEW

"Shifu once again demonstrates Mo’s talent for brutal, sensational storytelling."

--TIME

"[The stories] spin literary gold from a half-ccntury of social and political turmoil."

--SAN FRANCISCO CHRONICLE

Mo Yan, China’s most critically acclaimed author, has changed the face of his country’s contemporary literature with such daring novels as Red Sorghum, The Garlic Ballads, and The Republic of Wine. In this collection of eight astonishing stories the title story of which was made into the film Happy Times by the award-winning director of Red Sorghum, Zhang Yimou--Mo Yan shows why he is also China’s leading writer of short fiction. In his writing, which is shaped by his own experience of almost unimaginable poverty as a child, Mo Yan exposes the harsh abuses of an oppressive society These diverse, powerful tales are tied together by the author’s deep and abiding compassion for his fellow man which is equaled only by his disdain of bureaucracy and repression. Satire: fantasy, the supernatural, mystery: all are present in this remarkable, and intensely enjoyable, volume.

Preface

Hunger and Loneliness: My Muses

Translator’s Note

Shifu, You’ll Do Anything for a Laugh

Man and Beast

Soaring

Iron Child

The Cure

Love Story

Shen Garden

Abandoned Child