« Yu Hua, one of the central authors of contemporary Chinese fiction and author of classics such as The Brothers and To Live, has created an exemplary body of work that combines attention to ordinary lives with a strong historical and formal awareness. In a landscape marked by the collapse of imperial order and the emergence of an uncertain modernity, Yu Hua brings together marginal figures—artisans, bandits, prostitutes, healers, local leaders—to compose a fresco in which everyday violence coexists with unexpected forms of solidarity. The city thus becomes a real character: a place of arrival and loss, a transforming organism in which ancient codes of behavior and new economic logics coexist precariously. Beneath the adventurous plot lies a reflection on the power of storytelling: the “city of fiction” is the space in which individual stories and collective history rewrite each other, questioning the very idea of historical reality. By hybridizing popular epic and formalism, Yu Hua has composed a masterpiece. » Emanuele Coccia

‘CITY OF FICTION’

Author :Yu Hua

Selected by Emanuele Coccia

Type: Book

Publisher: Europa Editions