The Boat to Redemption - Softcover

Su Tong

3.28

239 ratings by Goodreads

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0552774545 ISBN 13: 9780552774543

Publisher: Random House, 2010

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Disgraced Secretary Ku has been banished from the Party - it has been officially proved he does not have a fish-shaped birthmark on his bottom and is therefore not the son of a revolutionary martyr, but the issue of a river pirate and a prostitute. Mocked by the citizens of Milltown, Secretary Ku leaves the shore for a new life among the boat people on a fleet of industrial barges. Refusing to renounce his high status, he maintains a distance - with Dongliang, his teenage son - from the gossipy lowlifes who surround him. One day a feral little girl, Huixian, arrives looking for her mother, who has jumped to her death in the river. The boat people, and especially Dongliang, take her to their hearts. But Huixian sows conflict wherever she goes, and soon Dongliang is in the grip of an obsession for her. He takes on Life, Fate and the Party in the only way he knows ...

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About the Author:

Born in 1963 in Suzhou and now living in Beijing with his family, Su Tong is China's most celebrated author, shooting to international fame when Zhang Yimou's Academy Award-nominated film of his novella Raise the Red Lantern.

Translator Howard Goldblatt is research professor at the University of Notre Dame. He has been awarded the Translation of the Year Prize from the American Literary Translators Association and the Man Asian Literary Prize.

Review:

Praise for Su Tong:

"This character-driven work, well translated by Goldblatt, is undeniably a story to ponder." --"Library Journal"

"Remarkable, subtle, and profound." --"The New York Times"

"Dreamlike, beautiful, brutal." --"The Sunday Times" (London)

"[His] insights into the realities of the human condition are a true strength." --"San Francisco Chronicle"

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