Summer Reads

A New York Times Editors' Choice"Luminous and beguiling . . ."—The Washington Post"Magical Realism at its best . . ."—The Wall Street JournalFrom one of the most exciting voices in contemporary Chinese literature, an uncanny and playful novel that blurs...

Ninth Building is a fascinating collection of vignettes drawn from Zou Jingzhi’s experience growing up during the Cultural Revolution, first as a boy in Beijing and then as a teenager exiled to the countryside. Zou poetically captures a side of the...

Nainai has lived in Shanghai for many years, and the time has come to find a wife for her adopted grandson. But when the bride she has chosen arrives from the countryside, it soon becomes clear that the orphaned girl has ideas of her own. Her name is Fu...

Yan Lianke has secured his place as contemporary China’s most essential and daring novelist, “with his superlative gifts for storytelling and penetrating eye for truth” (New York Times Book Review). His newest novel, The Day the Sun Died—winner of the...

In luminous prose, award-winning author Yiyun Li weaves together the lives of unforgettable characters who are forced to make moral choices, and choices for survival, in China in the late 1970s. Shortlisted for the 2011 International IMPAC Dublin...

Guo Jing and Lotus have escaped Qiu Qianren's mountain stronghold on the condors' backs, but Lotus carries a wound that will surely kill her. Their only hope lies in the healing powers of the King of the South. Little do they know that to seek an...

A Snake Lies Waiting is the next in Jin Yong's high stakes, tension-filled epic Legends of the Condor Heroes, where kung fu is magic, kingdoms vie for power and the battle to become the ultimate kung fu master unfolds.Guo Jing has confronted Apothecary...

From the acclaimed author of Brothers and China in Ten Words: here is Yu Hua’s unflinching portrait of life under Chairman Mao. A cart-pusher in a silk mill, Xu Sanguan augments his meager salary with regular visits to the local blood chief. His visits...

(Available after 3-20 days)The most ambitious work of fiction by a writer widely considered the most important novelist working in China todayIn this darkly comic novel, a group of women inhabits a world of constant surveillance, where informants lurk in...

(Available after 3-20 days)In the ninety-ninth district of a sprawling reeducation compound, freethinking artists and academics are detained to strengthen and affirm their loyalty to Communist ideologies. Here, in this isolated part of Henan province,...

Blending fact and fiction, this darkly comic fable “may be the purest distillation yet of Mr. Ma’s talent for probing the country’s darkest corners and exposing what he regards as the Communist Party’s moral failings” (Mike Ives, The New York Times)...

From the author of the “original and electric” Braised Pork (Time), An Yu’s enchanting and contemplative novel of music and mushrooms follows a former concert pianist searching for the truth about a vanished musician   For three years, Song Yan has...

Steeped in secrets, guilt and other ghosts of the past, The Key in the Lock is a mesmerising Gothic mystery revolving around a tragic fire in an old country house, perfect for fans of Daphne du Maurier and Elizabeth Macneal. I still dream,...

“In Four by Four, Mesa’s sentences are clear as glass, but when you look through you will be terrified by what you see.”—Laura van den Berg, author of The Third Hotel Set entirely at Wybrany College—a school where the wealthy keep their kids safe from...

Based on a true story, Orpheus Builds a Girl is a novel of sisterly love, sinister obsession, and the battle for control of the story. A dark, chilling debut novel from award-winning writer Heather Parry.German doctor Wilhelm Von Tore shares with the...

A NEW YORK TIMES NOTABLE BOOK OF THE YEAR“[A] skillfully crafted gothic mystery . . . Johnson pulls off a great feat in this book.” —Financial Times“It reminded me, in its general refusal to play nice, of early Ian McEwan.” —The New York Times Book...

Hailed as “a masterful excursion into terror” by the Sunday Times—the eerie, suspenseful debut novel from the author of Devil’s Day and Starve Acre.Winner of the Costa First Novel AwardA Best Book of the Year, London Times and Daily Mail“The terrors of...

SHORTLISTED FOR THE GOLDSBORO BOOKS GLASS BELL AWARDSHORTLISTED FOR THE HISTORICAL WRITERS’ ASSOCIATION DEBUT CROWN   ‘A gothic gem of intrigue and atmosphere’ -- HWA Debut Crown Judges England, 1917 Reeling from the death of her fiancé, Stella Marcham...

A living legend's last ride.It's 1976, and America is doomed. Trust between the government and the American public has crumbled, paranoia reigns, and the devil himself is about to unleash hell on Earth—just in time for the nation's bicentennial.American...

One of Vanity Fair's 21 Best Books of 2020 (So Far)A Vulture, LitHub, and PureWow Most Anticipated Book of 2020"As precise as any scientific observation and far more tantalizing." —Vogue"A sophisticated, surprising take on the campus novel (with a...