Book description
A young woman hears the tale of a sacred text, written in an ancient
language and inscribed on silk cloth many centuries ago. Puyi, the
last emperor and owner of the relic, allegedly tore the silk in pieces
with his teeth and threw it from a plane when he was taken by the
Japanese to Manchuria. A search for this lost text and its poignant,
devastatingly simple message begins...
This is a beguiling tale of fables, stories within stories, a young
man's desperate search for his father's legacy and a young woman's
search for the man she loved. Covering almost a century of China's
history, this haunting novel combines mystery, harsh reality and
tenderness with astonishing insight.
Born in China in 1954, Dai Sijie is a film maker and novelist, who
left China in 1984 for France where he now lives and works.. He is the
author of the international bestseller,
Balzac and the Chinese Seamstress
(shortlisted for the
Independent
Foreign Fiction prize), which he made into a film, and of
Mr Muo's
Travelling Couch
(winner of the Prix Femina).
