This month's book is a little-known classic from China: Shen Congwen's Border Town. Shen was in line for the Nobel Prize for Literature at the time of his death in 1988 but is still too little appreciated in the west.
Originally published in 1934, Border Town tells the story of Cuicui, a young girl from Hunan. Shen was known for his lyrical writing and strong female characters and nowhere is this more apparent than in this novella. If you haven't tried Chinese fiction before, give it a go. If you have read Chinese fiction, give it a go.
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