In Can Xue's world the superficial is peeled away to reveal layers of depth and meaning. Her stories observe no conventions of plot or characterization and limn a chaotic, poetic state ordered by the extreme logic of philosophy. Combining elements...

In this darkly comic novel, a group of women inhabits a world of constant surveillance, where informants lurk in the flowerbeds and false reports fly. Conspiracies abound in a community that normalizes paranoia and suspicion. Some try to flee – wheth...

In Can Xue's extraordinary book, we encounter a full assemblage of husbands, wives and lovers. Entwined in complicated, often tortuous relationships, these characters step into each other's fantasies, carrying on conversations that are "forever guess...

In 1958, China's revered leader Mao Zedong instituted a programme designed to transform his giant nation into a Communist utopia. Called the Great Leap Forward, Mao's grand scheme – like so many other utopian dreams of the 20th century – proved a mon...

"Five Spice Street" is a novel about a street in an unnamed city whose inhabitants speculate on the life of a mysterious Madam X. The novel interweaves their endless suppositions into a work that is at once political parable and surreal fantasia. Som...