20 Fragments of a Ravenous Youth
Format:Paperback
Publisher:Vintage Publishing
Published:1st Jan '09
£9.99
Available to order, but very limited on stock - if we have issues obtaining a copy, we will let you know.
This paperback is available in another edition too:
- Paperback£9.99(9781784877446)
A brave young woman negotiates Beijing life in search of love and friendship in the daring new novel by Xiaolu Guo, Orange Prize shortlisted author and 'one of China's most successful literary exports' (Guardian)
Life as a film extra in Beijing might seem hard, but Fenfang won't be defeated. Determined to live a modern life, Fenfang works as a cleaner in the Young Pioneer's movie theatre, falls in love with unsuitable men and keeps her kitchen cupboard stocked with UFO instant noodles.
Life as a film extra in Beijing might seem hard, but Fenfang won't be defeated. She has travelled 1800 miles to seek her fortune in the city, and has no desire to return to the never-ending sweet potato fields back home. Determined to live a modern life, Fenfang works as a cleaner in the Young Pioneer's movie theatre, falls in love with unsuitable men and keeps her kitchen cupboard stocked with UFO instant noodles. As Fenfang might say, Heavenly Bastard in the Sky, isn't it about time I got my lucky break?
Longlisted for the Man Asian Literary Prize.
A nihilistic, Generation X-style manifesto... Its impudent, hand-on-hip attitude cannot fail to charm * New Statesman *
Funny and melancholy, scintillatingly observed, and has a very big heart * The Times *
Both a personal odyssey and an insightful commentary about modern Chinese society and life itself... Xiaolu Guo is an instinctive, humane witness, her atmospheric, unusually physical narratives are alive and attractively insistent, inspired variations on the theme of quest * Irish Times *
A pure and bracing blast of universal youth... I loved it. It shines with the utterly blameless, scarily fragile arrogance of youth itself, the absolute certainty that death is better than middle age * Daily Telegraph *
A breath of the freshest air imaginable. She cuts through the smog of hype and platitude -- Boyd Tonkin * Independent *
ISBN: 9780099512936
Dimensions: 198mm x 129mm x 13mm
Weight: 149g
208 pages