To Live by Yu Hua, trans. Michael Berry

Originally banned in China, To Live is a modern classic that follows the life of Fugui, an ordinary man whose fortunes rise and fall against the backdrop of twentieth-century China - from civil war to land reform, the Great Leap Forward, and the Cultural Revolution.

A few facts:

• One of the most widely read contemporary Chinese novels in translation.
• Yu Hua himself has said that the inspiration for To Live came from the American folk song entitled “Old Black Joe” about an elderly slave who looks on the world with kindness, despite a lifetime of hardship.
• Adapted into an award-winning film directed by Zhang Yimou.
• Frequently cited as a defining literary portrait of modern Chinese history from the perspective of ordinary people rather than political leaders.
• Banned for a period in China for its unsparing portrayal of hardship, which makes its tone of quiet humanity all the more striking.

To Live should hopefully provide us with an accessible entry point for discovering modern Chinese fiction.

If you're grabbing a new copy, it's available on Hive (there are two collection points in Oxford for free delivery).