Golden Age

In this excellent translation by Yan Yan, Golden Age demonstrates that Wang Xiaobo is one of the most original writers in post-Mao China. At once hilarious and charged with serious political discourse, Golden Age is a tour de force. It is as playful as Animal Farm by Orwell and as complex as Master and Margarita by Bulgakov. Anyone who is interested in modern China should read this book -- Xiaolu Guo Every page is a surprise. The novel is outrageous, startling, and very, very funny -- Roddy Doyle One of the great writers to have emerged in post-Mao China. Wang Xiaobo excels in writing about love and sex - and coming of age - in an arid and bizarre world. With beautiful simplicity, he fills the reader with aching poignancy, and yet makes them want to laugh out loud -- Jung Chang Like a Chinese Kurt Vonnegut. By turns lyrical and satirical, Wang Xiaobo's sexual comedies set during the Chinese Cultural Revolution are as improbable as that genre sounds. His long overdue publication in English comes as a gift. Golden Age is funny and brave and profound -- Chris Kraus An iconic writer with a cult status who influenced an entire generation of Chinese writers, Wang Xiaobo culls a different personal memory from the days of the Cultural Revolution. A secret sexual affair between two youths sent to the countryside for reeducation opens a window unto love and punishment, ideology and privacy, reason and absurdity. The wistful triumph in Golden Age bespeaks a time when sanity was survival at its minimum. For all its dark humor, irony, and matter-of-fact fornication, the novel carries tremendous heart in what it encourages the individual to feel. A must-read novel -- Jing Tsu, author of KINGDOM OF CHARACTERS Until reading Wang Xiaobo's Golden Age, I had not seen a work that captures the ironies and contradictions Wang Er endures living in a communist country in a decidedly capitalist world. Just my saying this sounds academic, but the novel is not academic. It's hilarious, loose, surprising and so smart. I am reminded of Heller's Catch 22, but whereas circularity was the enemy for Yossarian, it might well be Wang Er's ally -- Percival Everett Startlingly funny, darkly profound, Golden Age is one of the most memorable novels published in Chinese language in the past hundred years, and it will still be read a hundred years from now -- Yiyun Li A comic take on oppressive regimes . . . wonderful euphemisms, wide-ranging irreverence, abetted by a voice that is variously smart, quirky, or sarcastic . . . entertaining . . . An unusual writer worth discovering for his humor and flair * Kirkus Reviews * A novel of lust and loss during China's Cultural Revolution . . . The idea of how to stand up to power underlies Golden Age -- Ian Johnson * New York Times * Startling and direct . . . Golden Age has long been admired by Chinese readers for its clever take on sexual rebellion, and its innovative voice and narrative style. Using the language of the state to highlight the absurdity of their laws, Xiaobo made a satire that is both amusing and effective. This fable remains relevant decades later and thousands of miles away -- Rhea Ramakrishnan * Ploughshares * Wang Xiaobo was arguably the most influential intellectual of the post-Tiananmen generation, a nonchalant provocateur as well as an unconventional, anti-authoritarian thinker whose writing has stood the test of time -- Sebastian Veg, author of MINJIAN Golden Age, long admired in many circles, may prove a revelation to readers outside China. Wang Xiaobo steeped himself in the literatures of East and West, and the blending of influences - including Proust and Twain - makes for a searingly funny and fearless narration full of brilliant head-long riffs on sex, time, history, and the terrifying absurdities of the Cultural Revolution. Bawdy, earthy, cerebral, outrageous, bleakly hilarious and off-handedly brave, this novel is like nothing else -- Sam Lipsyte, author of THE ASK and THE SUBJECT STEVE Admired for his cynicism, irony, humor, readers and critics around the world now widely regard Wang Xiaobo as one of the most important modern Chinese authors ... His [writing is] considered crucial to understanding China's recent past -- Ian Johnson * New York Review of Books * Chinese author Wang Xiaobo died aged just 44 in 1997, but his masterpiece, Golden Age (Penguin, April), has now been translated into English in full for the first time by Yan Yan. It's a scabrous, bawdy novel set in the years of the Cultural Revolution. It's also very moving. -- Alex Preston * Guardian Fiction to Look Out for in 2023 *