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Buying a Fishing Rod for My Grandfather

Published
Feb 2004
Main Genre
General Fiction General Fiction
Rating
Pages
144

About This Book

"Precisely detailed and delicately suggestive: the best work of Gao's yet to appear in English translation."—Kirkus Reviews

A collection of six exquisite short stories from Gao Xingjian, the first Chinese writer to win the Nobel Prize in Literature. These beautifully translated stories take as their themes the fragility of love and life, and the haunting power of memory.

In "The Temple," the narrator's acute and mysterious anxiety overshadows the delirious happiness of an outing with his new wife on their honeymoon. In "The Cramp" a man narrowly escapes drowning in the sea, only to find that no one even noticed his absence. In the title story the narrator attempts to relieve his homesickness only to find that he is lost in a labyrinth of childhood memories.

Everywhere in this collection are powerful psychological portraits of characters whose unarticulated hopes and fears betray the never-ending presence of the past in their present lives.

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Paperback

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Jan 2005 HarperPerennial ISBN 0060575565
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Hardcover

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First Edition Jan 2004 HarperCollins ISBN 0060575557
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eBook

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Jan 2009 Harper ISBN 0061871575
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Oct 2009 HarperCollins ISBN B000OYEWKQ
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Oct 2009 HarperPerennial ISBN 000738968X
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Oct 2009 4th Estate ISBN 0730498700
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