![]() ![]() It is believed that the systematic violence unleashed under the movement together with a nationwide famine ended up taking some 55 million lives. The Four Books is a satirical take on the coercive policies and human misery at the heart of Mao Zedong’s ambitious Great Leap Forward campaign (1958-1961) – launched to quickly turn China from an agrarian economy into an industrialised one (outshining England and America). When I say that I have written this recklessly and without concern for publication, I do not mean that I have simply written about mundane or contemptible topics, such as coarse and fine grains, beautiful flowers and full moons, or chicken droppings and dog shit, but rather that I have produced a work exactly as I wanted to. The Four Books is (at least partially) an attempt to write recklessly and without any concern for the prospect of getting published. ![]() I’ve always dreamed of being able to write without any regard for publication. ![]() He has stated: The Four Books (2010) by Yan Lianke translated by Carlos Rojas (2015, Grove Press) Lianke has been (admirably) uncompromising. The novel is now available in several foreign languages. It was rejected by 20 publishers in mainland China, after which Lianke printed a small private run for friends and colleagues. Lianke’s 2010 novel The Four Books (English translation by Carlos Rojas of Duke Grove Press/Chatto & Windus) took him 20 years to plan and only two to write. Frequently introduced as China’s most controversial and most censored author, Beijing-based Yan Lianke (born 1958) has been recognised internationally through prestigious honours such as the Franz Kafka Prize (won) and the Man Booker International Prize (nominated) – for his humanistic and existential writing that has resisted the darkest forms of oppression. ![]()
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