The phenomenal #1 Chinese bestseller, with over 2.5 million copies sold. This is a searing exploration of what makes a hero: a literary masterpiece, available in the English language for the very first time. The boy grows up in a small village in south China listening to stories about the Colonel: some say he was a legendary army doctor during the war, some say he was a traitor to the Party, still others say he is a wicked sex machine. The stories are bawdy and mesmerizing, always larger than life. Yet in reality, the Colonel is just a middle-aged man who loves his cat. And why on earth does everyone call him 'the Eunuch'? From these disparate sources, the boy tries to piece together who the Colonel really is, just as he himself grows up in a rapidly changing China. It is not until many years later, when the boy also becomes a middle-aged man, that he would look back and finally solve the puzzle. The Colonel and the Eunuch is Mai Jia's first new novel in eight years and his most ambitious work to date. An exciting departure from spy thrillers, this is a coming-of-age story, a family saga, as well as a searing exploration of what makes a hero. The Colonel is Mai Jia's singular creation: an almost mythic figure shrouded in the tragedy of war and history, whose story will move even the most stone-hearted to tears.

Winner of the Mao Dun Literature Prize. From one of China's most celebrated authors comes a masterful novel about modernity and tradition, love and obsession, and economic change and quixotic dreams-all set against the backdrop of a rapidly urbanizing China. In post-Cultural Revolution China, in the fading village of Freshwind, the fates of two households are shifting. The Bais, once the most powerful family in the region, have fallen from status. Their beautiful daughter, Snow Bai, an embodiment of tradition, pursues a career in a vanishing art form. The Xias, enthusiastic members of the Party, are on the rise. Their favorite son, Wind Xia, is a citified politician whose marriage to Snow Bai could unite the two families. But in a village casting about for a new road to prosperity, fortunes can change. Watching it all unfold is a local outcast named Spark. The inveterate busybody is given to strange visions and flights of fancy, and is motivated by the only constant in Freshwind: his mad love for Snow Bai. Expansive, funny, monumental, and deeply poignant, Jia Pingwa's The Shaanxi Opera is a keenly observant portrait of China in an era of globalization, societal upheaval, and the growing influence of popular culture.

The phenomenal #1 Chinese bestseller, with over 2.5 million copies sold. This is a searing exploration of what makes a hero: a literary masterpiece, available in the English language for the very first time. The boy grows up in a small village in south China listening to stories about the Colonel: some say he was a legendary army doctor during the war, some say he was a traitor to the Party, still others say he is a wicked sex machine. The stories are bawdy and mesmerizing, always larger than life. Yet in reality, the Colonel is just a middle-aged man who loves his cat. And why on earth does everyone call him 'the Eunuch'? From these disparate sources, the boy tries to piece together who the Colonel really is, just as he himself grows up in a rapidly changing China. It is not until many years later, when the boy also becomes a middle-aged man, that he would look back and finally solve the puzzle. The Colonel and the Eunuch is Mai Jia's first new novel in eight years and his most ambitious work to date. An exciting departure from spy thrillers, this is a coming-of-age story, a family saga, as well as a searing exploration of what makes a hero. The Colonel is Mai Jia's singular creation: an almost mythic figure shrouded in the tragedy of war and history, whose story will move even the most stone-hearted to tears.