Category Archives: Novels

A new prose work by the poet Bei Dao who wants to rebuild “his” Beijing.

Bei Dao is with Yang Lian and Duo Duo, one of the best-known Chinese poets of the Tiananmen generation in the West. His prose works have suffered from the celebrity of a poetry often considered as a candidate for a Nobel Prize.

Two collections of essays, translated into English, a beautiful novel ” Waves “ (1) and short stories ” 13 rue du Bonheur ” (2) which are completed by a superb autobiographical text “ … Lire la suite

Why not take advantage of your lockdown to read Chinese novels?

China is the largest book publisher in the world and yet reading Chinese novels does not always get very good press. With the six books that we are recommending, we hope to show a different picture: these are books that have been translated over the last two years into French and English and are readily available from online sellers in book form and often as electronic files.

High quality texts, very different themes and styles … Lire la suite

Chi Zijian, can literature help us face the epidemic?

With the epidemic, sales of Camus’ “The Plague” strongly increased in Italy and France. A good omen for Chi Zijian’s novel “Neige et Corbeaux” (1) (White Snow, Black Crows) which has just been translated into French with talent by François Sastourné and published by Editions Philippe Picquier.

The novel was released in China in 2010, as an anniversary of the plague in Harbin and Manchuria that killed 60,000 people in 1910/1911. Harbin is … Lire la suite

Sharlene Teo, horror films and literature in Singapore.

It’s a pity that Singapore and Malaysian literature is not reviewed more often. In Malaysia, there is a state-sponsored literary life for the Malaysian language and little international exposure, but for literature in English, writers like Tash Aw and Tan Twan Eng, are known all over the world. In Singapore, many writers are supported but also sometimes controlled by the government; cultural life has improved a lot in the last years.

This is why we … Lire la suite

The novelist Yan Lianke, with “The death of the sun”, paints a tragic portrait of the Chinese dream.

Yan Lianke is one of the most important contemporary novelists, who could become a Nobel prize winner. A major work, “The Death of the Sun” (La mort du soleil) (1) has just been published by Editions Philippe Picquier, which has done a considerable amount of work, with ten publications, to make Yan Lianke’s novels better known.

The book has been translated into French by Brigitte Guilbaud, whose translations of several of the author’s novels have … Lire la suite

Xiao Hong, the talent of a great novelist let down by translators, publishers, film makers…

In February 2014, I posted a short analysis of the works of Xiao Hong, one of the most important novelists of 20th century Chinese literature, who died in Hong Kong in 1942, at the age of 31, after a ten years literary career. The anniversary of her death in 2012 provided the opportunity for strong media promotion: theatre production, opera and a film “Falling Flowers” by Huo Jianqi which did not meet with the success … Lire la suite

Racial tensions, social inequalities in Malaysia, Tash Aw’s latest novel.

Tash Aw is the most famous Malaysian novelist; he was born in Taipei in 1973 and lived in Kuala Lumpur before studying law in Cambridge and working for a few years with a lawyer. He lives in London and currently in Paris for a few months.

Three of his novels written in English are translated into French. The first one gave him immediate international fame and a record advance fee. At the beginning of 2008, … Lire la suite

Wang Ting-Kuo, novels where love and ambition do not blend.

Wang Ting-Kuo is a famous novelist in Taiwan; his book, “My enemy’s cherry tree” (1) won numerous award in 2015 and was quickly translated into English after the success, the previous year, of a collection of short stories, one of which, “La Chute” is available in French (2).

These texts focus on two male characters of modest origin who try to overcome their frustration by building a professional success that will … Lire la suite

Le Clezio, a Nobel prize in Nanjing and China

A book by Jean Marie Gustave Le Clézio has just been published, subtitled “Aventure poétique et échanges littéraires”, it is about “Quinze causeries en Chine” (1), fifteen lectures, selected by his translator and friend Xu Jun; occasional texts but also essays of a very high quality.

Xu Jun translated “Desert” in 1983 and then nine years later “Le Procès Verbal”. They then met in Nanjing, during a visit of Le Clézio and … Lire la suite