This week, we review Mo Yan's novel The Garlic Ballads.  Mo's work is intertwined with the politics of his country but we do our best to focus on the book itself (the political discussion will come in future episodes).  We also try to determine why we often feel disappointed by Chinese fiction, and James adds another entry to his collection of surprising literary awards.

For this series we will be discussing Life Under Communism with Herta Muller's The Passport Aug 12-26, László Krasznahorkai's Satantango Sept 2-16, and Mo Yan's The Garlic Ballads Sept 23 - Oct 7.

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