Dream of Ding Village

"A brilliant & harrowing novel" about a deadly epidemic fueled by corruption, based on real-life events in China (Publishers Weekly, starred review).

“A sorrowful but captivating novel about the price of progress in modern China. The book, which was censored in that country, builds to an act of violence that resonates with the impact of Greek tragedy or Shakespearean drama.” — Kirkus Reviews

Officially censored upon its Chinese publication, Dream of Ding Village is based on a real-life blood-selling scandal in eastern China. The novel is the result of three years of undercover work by Yan Lianke, who worked as an assistant to a well-known Beijing anthropologist in an effort to study a small village decimated by HIV/AIDS as a result of unregulated blood selling. Whole villages were wiped out with no responsibility taken or reparations paid.

Dream of Ding Village focuses on one family, destroyed when one son rises to the top of the party pile as he exploits the situation, while another son is infected & dies. The result is a passionate & steely critique of the rate at which China is developing & what happens to those who get in the way.
"Lianke...

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Yan Lianke is the author of Hard Like Water, The Day the Sun Died, The Explosion Chronicles, The Four Books, & many other novels & story collections. Winner of the Franz Kafka Prize & a two-time finalist for the Man Booker International Prize, Yan teaches at Renmin University in Beijing & the Hong Kong University of Science & Technology.