I Love Bill and Other Stories
I Love Bill and Other Stories showcases the work of Wang Anyi, one of China's most prolific and highly regarded writers, in two novellas and three short stories.
A young artist's life spirals out of control when she drops out of school to pursue a series of unfulfilling relationships with foreign men. A performance troupe struggles to adapt to a changing China at the end of the Cultural Revolution. The head of an isolated village arranges a youth's posthumous marriage to an unknown soldier, only to have the soldier's former lover unexpectedly turn up. A fun trip takes an unexpected turn when two young women are kidnapped and sold off as brides. A boy's bout with typhoid provides an intimate look at family life in Shanghai's longtang alleys.
In this thoughtful translation by Todd Foley, I Love Bill and Other Stories offers poignant and nuanced portrayals of life during China's economic and cultural transition at the turn of the millennium.
Wang Anyi is president of the Shanghai Writers' Association and professor at Fudan University. She has received the Mao Dun Literature Prize, and her works in English translation include Baotown, The Song of Everlasting Sorrow, and Fuping. Todd Foley teaches courses on Chinese literature, film, and critical theory at NYU.