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Balzac and the Little Chinese Seamstress


General

Subtitle:
Author: Sijie, Dai; Dai, Sijie
Editor:
Binding: Paperback
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Publishing

Publisher: Vintage
Edition:
Copyright Year:
Publication Year: 2010-08-01
ISBN#: 978-0-09-928643-1
LCCN#:
Pages: 172
Translator:
Language: English

Comments

1971: Mao's cultural Revolution is at its peak. Two sons of doctors, sent to 're-education' camps, forced to carry buckets of excrement up and down mountain paths, have only their sense of humour to keep them going. Although the attractive daughter of the local tailor also helps to distract them from the task at hand.

The boys' true re-education starts, however, when they discover a hidden suitcase packed with the great Western novels of the nineteenth century. Their lives are transformed. And not only their lives: after listening to the stories of Balzac, the little seamstress will never be the same again.