OPEN A BOOK,OPEN THE WORLD
有人渴望被理解，有人終其一生學不會開口，而那些未曾說出的祕密，終將悄悄改寫命運。從北京街頭到芝加哥速食店，從內蒙荒原到異鄉的公寓宅所，作者以冷靜而銳利的筆觸，挑開角色們在愛與孤獨間反覆拉扯，各自因政治、歷史與親密關係而留下的傷痕。她寫下漂泊、寫下沉默與失語的人們，語調幽微克制，情緒卻猛烈懾人。本書有如一顆無聲的長鏡頭，端照每個人在時代洪流裡最深刻的寂寞。
Brilliant and original, A Thousand Years of Good Prayers introduces a remarkable new writer whose breathtaking stories are set in China and among Chinese Americans in the United States. In this rich, astonishing collection, Yiyun Li illuminates how mythology, politics, history, and culture intersect with personality to create fate. From the bustling heart of Beijing, to a fast-food restaurant in Chicago, to the barren expanse of Inner Mongolia, A Thousand Years of Good Prayers reveals worlds both foreign and familiar, with heartbreaking honesty and in beautiful prose.
“Immortality,” winner of The Paris Review’s Plimpton Prize for new writers, tells the story of a young man who bears a striking resemblance to a dictator and so finds a calling to immortality. In “The Princess of Nebraska,” a man and a woman who were both in love with a young actor in China meet again in America and try to reconcile the lost love with their new lives.
“After a Life” illuminates the vagaries of marriage, parenthood, and gender, unfolding the story of a couple who keep a daughter hidden from the world. And in “A Thousand Years of Good Prayers,” in which a man visits America for the first time to see his recently divorced daughter, only to discover that all is not as it seems, Li boldly explores the effects of communism on language, faith, and an entire people, underlining transformation in its many meanings and incarnations.
These and other daring stories form a mesmerizing tapestry of revelatory fiction by an unforgettable writer.
