Product details
- ISBN 9780099569480
- Weight: 351g
- Dimensions: 132 x 199mm
- Publication Date: 03 Oct 2013
- Publisher: Vintage Publishing
- Publication City/Country: GB
- Product Form: Paperback
- Language: English
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A FINALIST FOR THE MAN BOOKER INTERNATIONAL PRIZE
Deep within the Balou mountains lies a small rural town populated by disabled people. Blind, deaf and disfigured, the 197 citizens of the Village of Liven have until now enjoyed a peaceful, mutually supportive life out of sight and mind of the government. But when an unseasonal snowstorm wipes out that year’s crops, a county official dreams up a scheme that will raise money for the district and boost his career.
He convinces the villagers to set up a travelling freak-show, to include Blind Tonghua’s Acute Listening Act and Deafman Ma’s Firecrackers-on-the-Ear. With the money, he intends to buy Lenin’s embalmed corpse from an ailing Russia and install it in a splendid mausoleum in the mountains to attract tourism to this sleepy district. However, as we all know, even the best intentions can go awry.
