The Four Books

"Works of simple witnessing can be intensely powerful . . . like Yan Lianke's The Four Books, which takes on the famines and mass deaths in China during the Great Leap Forward . . . Let's hope that if democracy implodes and free public speech is suppressed, someone will record the process as it unfolds."-Margaret Atwood, Nation

"An original work of art . . . The Four Books shows Yan in top satirical form." –Malcolm Forbes, The National

"[The Four Books] can be read as a culmination of the longer project in which Lianke is engaged: criticizing the foundations of the Chinese state and the historical narrative on which it is built, while still somehow remaining one of its most lauded writers." –Jacob Mikanowski, New Republic

"Arch and playful. . . . [Yan] deploys offbeat humour, anarchic set pieces and surreal imagery to shed new light on dark episodes from modern Chinese history. . . . [A] brave, brilliant novel." –David Evans, Financial Times

"[The Four Books] is driven by a cold fury at the events it recounts, its satire edged with Swiftian moral disgust. It is unsparing in its picture of the ways in which totalitarian habits of thought seep deep into personal relations, and it is smart in its depiction of how intellectuals get co-opted by the system . . . [Yan's] fiction of ideas feels hard won and genuine, an expression of sorrow, bafflement, anger, and love." –Robert Anthony Siegel, The Rumpus

"No other writer in today's China has so consistently explored, dissected and mocked the past six and a half decades of Chinese communist rule. . . . An extraordinary novel, one that both commemorates the state's victims and defies China's state-sponsored amnesia." –Isabel Hilton, Guardian

"[The Four Books is] a Chinese novel hailed across the planet as a masterpiece, and I'm normally the first to resist such an imposition before I've even opened the thing–but for once, the hype doesn't go far enough. . . . Stupendous and unforgettable . . . a devastating, brilliant slice of living history." –Kate Saunders, The Times (UK)

"A satirical tale about abuse of power and the vicious survivalist psychology of people who have been robbed of their moral and intellectual compass . . . brilliantly chilling . . . The Four Books captures an aspect of Chinese life which is hard to imagine and understand for a foreigner, and Yan's skilful depiction reaffirms why he is China's most heralded and censored modern writer." –The South China Morning Post

"The Four Books should be celebrated for its originality. . . . A fascinating approach to a daring and interesting subject." –The Harvard Crimson

"One of contemporary Chinese literature's richest, wittiest, most seductive and powerful novels. . . . A joy to read." –The Saturday Paper (Au)

"A searing, allegorical view of Chinese society during some of the darkest moments of the Mao era. . . . Yan cements his reputation as one of China's most important–and certainly most fearless–living writers." –Kirkus Reviews

"Yan has built his substantial career on exposing the surreal absurdity of China's 20th-century tragedies. . . . [This] multilayered novel is . . . a vital historical testimony." –Library Journal (starred review)

"A stinging indictment of the illogic of bureaucracy and tyranny . . . the literary structure is tight and the prose incredibly accessible. Readers will have difficulty putting this down." –Publishers Weekly

"One of the masters of modern Chinese literature, Yan Lianke gives all the pleasures one gets from reading. H