China Book Club: '20 Fragments of a Ravenous Youth' by Guo Xiaolu

Guo Xiaolu is one of China's most successful living authors. Her books include 'I Am China' (which this group covered in 2022), and 'A Concise Chinese-English Dictionary for Lovers'.

'20 Fragments of a Ravenous Youth' is a coming-of-age story that has a lot to say about the changing role of women in modern China. Fenfang has travelled 1800 miles to seek her fortune in Beijing. Determined to live a modern life, she works as a cleaner, gets into bad romances, and finally has a sort-of big break with work as a film extra. She makes sense of much of this by conversing with 'Heavenly Bastard in the Sky' in her imagination.