100,000+ Books, Games & Puzzles in-stock πŸ‡³πŸ‡Ώ

Overnight NZ-wide delivery πŸš€ Auckland Bookstore Open 7 days 8:30am - 5pm

20 Fragments of a Ravenous Youth

3.67 goodreads logo

Ratings/reviews counts are updated frequently.

Check link for latest rating.
( 3,350 ratings, 499 reviews)
Book Hero Magic crafted this summary to help describe this book. While it's new and still learning, it may not be perfect - your feedback is welcome! Summary
20 Fragments of a Ravenous Youth by Xiaolu Guo tells the story of Fenfang, a young woman from a rural village in China, who moves to Beijing in search of a more fulfilling life. The narrative follows her trials and tribulations as she navigates the world of filmmaking and explores the complexities of life in a rapidly changing city. Told through vivid snapshots, Fenfang's journey highlights themes of ambition, identity, and the pursuit of dreams.
Read More
Format: Paperback / softback
$2400
Elsewhere:
$2600
OVERNIGHT NZ-WIDE DELIVERY

Found a better price? Request a price match

Book Hero Magic created this recommendation. While it's new and still learning, it may not be perfect - your feedback is welcome! IS THIS YOUR NEXT READ?

You might enjoy this book if you're interested in vivid storytelling that captures the vibrant yet challenging landscapes of contemporary Chinese youth. It offers a raw and humorous insight into the quest for identity and purpose amidst cultural and societal changes. The narrative is both moving and entertaining, making it a compelling read for those who appreciate exploring different cultural contexts through fiction.

Book Hero thinking about your next read

Book Hero Magic formatted this description to make it easier to read. While it's new and still learning, it may not be perfect - your feedback is welcome! Description

Meet ten of literature's most iconic heroines, jacketed in bold portraits by female photographers from around the world.

20 Fragments of a Ravenous Youth tells the story of Fenfang, who is determined to carve out a life more independent than her provincial roots. She secures a job as a film extra in Beijing, but living a modern life is not as easy as it appears in this tumultuous, messy city.

Grappling with the narrow world of cinema, an outworn Communist regime, and the city's far-from-progressive attitudes toward women, the charismatic Fenfang finds her true freedom in the one place she never expected.

20 Fragments of a Ravenous Youth is a sparkling and wry coming-of-age story about the changing identity of women in contemporary China.

Series: Vintage Heroines

View all
  • My Year of Rest and Relaxation
    In My Year of Rest and Relaxation, acclaimed author Ottessa Moshfegh presents a darkly comedic and profoundly moving exploration of a young woman's desire to abandon the chaos of life. The protagonist, a nameless narrator, appears to have it all: youth, beauty, and financial security that allows her to live in a luxurious apartment on Manhattan’s Upper East Side. However,...
    Paperback
    $2600
    In Stock
    Ships today
  • Push
    Meet ten of literature's most iconic heroines, jacketed in bold portraits by female photographers from around the world. I'm alive inside. A bird is my heart. Mama and Daddy is not win. I'm winning. This is the story of Precious, a sixteen-year-old illiterate Black girl who has never been out of Harlem. Pregnant by her own father for the second...
    Paperback
    $2300
    Elsewhere:
    $2600
    Backorder
    Ships early September
  • Jane Eyre
    Jane Eyre by Charlotte BrontΓ« is a timeless classic that weaves a compelling narrative of resilience, love, and mystery. Set against the backdrop of Victorian England, this poignant story follows the life of Jane Eyre, an orphaned girl subjected to the harsh cruelty of her aunt and the austere regime of the charity school she is forced to attend. Despite...
    Paperback
    $2600
    In Stock
    Ships today
  • 20 Fragments of a Ravenous Youth
    Meet ten of literature's most iconic heroines, jacketed in bold portraits by female photographers from around the world. 20 Fragments of a Ravenous Youth tells the story of Fenfang, who is determined to carve out a life more independent than her provincial roots. She secures a job as a film extra in Beijing, but living a modern life is not...
    Paperback
    $2400
    Elsewhere:
    $2600
    In Stock
    Ships today
  • I Capture the Castle
    Meet ten of literature's most iconic heroines, jacketed in bold portraits by female photographers from around the world. 'I write this sitting in the kitchen sink...' This is the story of Cassandra, precocious and charming, who begins a journal detailing her life with her bohemian family in a crumbling old castle. On the cusp of adulthood, Cassandra meets the family's...
    Paperback
    $2400
    Elsewhere:
    $2600
    In Stock
    Ships today
  • Oranges Are Not The Only Fruit
    Meet ten of literature's most iconic heroines, jacketed in bold portraits by female photographers from around the world. 'At that time I could not imagine what would become of me, and I didn't care. It was not judgement day, but another morning.' This is the story of Jeanette, adopted and brought up by working-class evangelists in the North of England...
    Paperback
    $2800
    In Stock
    Ships today
  • We Need New Names
    Meet ten of literature's most iconic heroines, jacketed in bold portraits by female photographers from around the world. 'There are times, though, that no matter how much food I eat, I find the food does nothing for me, like I am hungry for my country and nothing is going to fix that.' This is the story of Darling, uprooted from...
    Paperback
    $2400
    Elsewhere:
    $2600
    In Stock
    Ships today
  • White Chrysanthemum
    β€˜Look for your sister after each dive. Never forget. If you see her, you are safe.’ This is the story of Hana and her little sister Emi, who are part of an island community of haenyo, women who make their living from free diving off the southernmost tip of Korea. One day Hana sees a Japanese soldier heading for where...
    Paperback
    $2600
    In Stock
    Ships today
  • Gigi
    Meet ten of literature's most iconic heroines, jacketed in bold portraits by female photographers from around the world. He must know by now, I should think, that I can give as good as I get! This is the story of Gigi, educated as a future courtesan in Paris. Her days are filled with cigars, lobster, lace, and superstitions. Bored and...
    By Colette
    Paperback
    Sold Out
  • Madame Bovary
    Meet ten of literature's most iconic heroines, jacketed in bold portraits by female photographers from around the world. Madame Bovary tells the story of Emma, who is trapped in a disappointing marriage with a dull country doctor, and dreams of a life more like the sentimental novels she reads. In an attempt to escape the drab reality of her provincial...
    Paperback
    Sold Out

Book Hero Magic summarised reviews for this book. While it's new and still learning, it may not be perfect - your feedback is welcome! HOW HAS THIS BEEN REVIEWED?

20 Fragments of a Ravenous Youth by Xiaolu Guo is appreciated for its vivid portrayal of a young woman's journey in modern Beijing. Readers often commend its engaging narrative style and insightful exploration of themes like identity and aspiration. The book's unique structure and the protagonist's compelling voice have drawn positive responses, adding to its reputation as a fresh perspective on contemporary Chinese life.

Book Hero reading reviews

Book Details

INFORMATION

ISBN: 9781784877446

Publisher: Vintage Publishing

Format: Paperback / softback

Date Published: 14 October 2021

Country: United Kingdom

Imprint: Vintage Classics

Audience: General / adult

DIMENSIONS

Spine width: 14.0mm

Width: 129.0mm

Height: 198.0mm

Weight: 182g

Pages: 224

About the Author

Xiaolu Guo was born in China. She published six books before moving to Britain in 2002. Her books include- Village of Stone, shortlisted for the Independent Foreign Fiction Prize; A Concise Chinese-English Dictionary for Lovers, shortlisted for the Orange Prize; and I Am China. Her recent memoir, Once Upon a Time in the East, won the National Book Critics Circle Award, was shortlisted for the Costa Biography Award and the Rathbones Folio Prize 2018. It was a Sunday Times Book of the Year. Her most recent novel A Lover's Discourse was shortlisted for the Goldsmiths Prize 2020. She is a fellow of the Royal Society of Literature and a visiting professor at the Free University in Berlin.

Also by Xiaolu Guo

View all
  • My Battle of Hastings
    The new memoir in a triptych from prize-winning writer and filmmaker Xiaolu Guo, in which she moves to Hastings to find a room of her own and immerses herself in local history. 'This is urgent, compelling but also delightful writing' – Lauren Elkin In the depths of winter, Xiaolu Guo moves into a tiny dilapidated flat on the Hastings seafrontβ€”a...
    Paperback
    $2600
    Elsewhere:
    $2800
    Available
    Ships in 4-6 weeks
  • Call Me Ishmaelle
    Moby-Dick reimagined from the perspective of a cross-dressed female sailor. Brilliantly written... ambitious, brave, strange β€” Philip Hoare One of the most valuable writers in the world β€” Deborah Levy 1843. Ishmaelle is born in a small village on the stormy Kent coast where she grows up swimming with dolphins. After her parents and infant sister die, her brother, Joseph,...
    Paperback
    $3800
    Available
    Ships in 4-6 weeks
  • Call Me Ishmaelle
    From prize-winning author Xiaolu Guo comes a dazzling gender-flipped reimagining of Moby Dick. Moby-Dick reimagined from the perspective of a cross-dressed female sailor. Brilliantly written... ambitious, brave, strange - Philip Hoare One of the most valuable writers in the world - Deborah Levy 1843. Ishmaelle is born in a small village on the stormy Kent coast where she grows up...
    Paperback
    $2800
    Available
    Ships in 4-6 weeks
  • Radical
    The new memoir from prize-winning writer and filmmaker Xiaolu Guoβ€”playful, provocative, and originalβ€”it's her deeply personal take on striving for a life of her own. The new memoir from prize-winning writer and filmmaker Xiaolu Guoβ€”playful, provocative, and originalβ€”it's her deeply personal take on striving for a life of her own. 'When it comes to spinning light and shadow on the...
    Paperback
    Sold Out
  • A Lover's Discourse
    A funny and charming new novel from Xiaolu Guo about love, language, displacement and finding our place in the world. A Lover's Discourse is described as 'a fragmentary meditation on the nature of love' by the Guardian. A Chinese woman comes to post-Brexit London to start over, just as the Brexit campaign reaches a fever pitch. Isolated and lonely in...
    Paperback
    Sold Out
  • My Battle of Hastings
    The new memoir in a triptych from prize-winning writer and filmmaker Xiaolu Guo, in which she moves to Hastings to find a room of her own and immerses herself in local history. 'One of the most valuable writers in the world' - Deborah Levy My Battle of Hastings is an exploration of how an immigrant, an outsider, and a woman...
    Hardback
    Sold Out
  • Once Upon A Time in the East
    A memoir of growing up in modern China from the Orange-shortlisted and Granta Best Young British Novelist. Winner of the National Book Critics Circle Award Shortlisted for the Costa Biography Award Shortlisted for the Jhalak Prize Shortlisted for the Rathbones Folio Prize 2018 A Sunday Times Book of the Year Xiaolu Guo meets her parents for the first time when...
    Paperback
    Sold Out
  • A Concise Chinese-English Dictionary for Lovers
    VINTAGE VOYAGES: A world of journeys, from the tallest mountains to the depths of the mind. A charming and clever account of one woman's exploration of love, language, and identity. Twenty-three-year-old Zhuang (or Z as she calls herself) arrives in London to spend a year learning English. Struggling to find her way in the city, and through the puzzles of...
    Paperback
    Sold Out
  • Everyday Tang
    After decades living in England, writer and filmmaker Xiaolu Guo travelled to her native China with her daughter. Her objective was twofold: to show her eleven-year-old where she came from, and to discover what remained of an enigmatic period that had long fascinated her: the magnificent and cosmopolitan Tang Dynasty (618-907). As they wander through the great cities of Xi'an...
    Paperback
    Sold Out

More from General Fiction

View all
  • The Wedding People
    'BEST READ OF THE YEAR SO FAR' THE TIMES 'BOOKS AS FUN AS THIS ONE ARE FEW AND FAR BETWEEN' GUARDIAN Phoebe Stone arrives at a grand beachside hotel in Rhode Island wearing her best dress and least comfortable shoes. Immediately she is mistaken for one of the wedding people β€” but she's actually the only guest at the Cornwall...
    Paperback
    $2399
    Elsewhere:
    $2799
    (3)
    In Stock
    Ships today
  • Buy to Win
    Dungeon Crawler Carl
    The apocalypse will be televised! Welcome to the first book in the wildly popular and addictive Dungeon Crawler Carl series by Matt Dinniman-now with bonus material exclusive to the print edition! You know what's worse than breaking up with your girlfriend? Being stuck with her prize-winning show cat. And you know what's worse than that? An alien invasion, the destruction...
    Paperback
    $3199
    Elsewhere:
    $3800
    (1)
    In Stock
    Ships today
  • Pre-order
    Big Little Truths
    Parenting teens is not for the faint of heart but Madeline, Jane and Celeste have been through worse. It's been a decade since the school trivia night that changed their lives forever and now they're living blissfully ordinary suburban lives. But when an anonymous grisly package arrives at the local high school, and a man in a green Volvo is...
    Paperback
    $3199
    Elsewhere:
    $3799
    Pre-order
    Out 25 Aug 2026
  • Throne of Glass Box Set (Paperback)
    Enter the realm. Unleash the darkness. Live the legend. Discover the worldwide phenomenon of the #1 New York Times-bestselling Throne of Glass series in this gorgeous 8-book box set! In a land without magic, an assassin is summoned to the castle. She has no love for the vicious king who rules from his throne of glass, but she has not...
    Set
    $12400
    Elsewhere:
    $15500
    (6)
    In Stock
    Ships today
  • New Release
    The Ballad of Falling Dragons [Special Deluxe edition]
    The No.1 Sunday Times bestselling sensation When the Moon Hatched continues with the second book in The Moonfall Series, The Ballad of Falling Dragons… Raeve’s thirst for vengeance continues to burn, as does her love for Kaan Vaegor – a staunch beacon from a past she’s yet to face. With Rekk’s blood still fresh on her hands, she learns the...
    Hardback
    $5999
    In Stock
    Ships today
  • The Goal
    Welcome to Briar U!Get ready for your newest obsession . . . Discover the addictive world of the Off-Campus series from The Queen of Hockey Romance, Elle Kennedy!Read The Goal now for the perfect forced proximity romance! She's good at achieving her goals . . . College senior Sabrina James has her whole future planned out: graduate from college, kick...
    Paperback
    $2499
    Elsewhere:
    $2799
    In Stock
    Ships today
  • Buy to Win
    Carl's Doomsday Scenario
    Join Carl and his ex-girlfriend's cat Princess Donut as they fight fantastical creatures and deadly mobs in the second book in the smash-hit Dungeon Crawler Carl series -now with bonus material exclusive to the print edition Now on the third floor, Carl and Donut have to fight harder than ever. They've already proven that a Coast Guard vet and once-and-forever...
    Hardback
    $4699
    Elsewhere:
    $6000
    (1)
    In Stock
    Ships today
  • Buy to Win
    On Sale
    17% off
    Project Hail Mary
    Project Hail Mary by Andy Weir, the SUNDAY TIMES and NEW YORK TIMES bestselling author of The Martian, offers a gripping new adventure in hard science fiction. With endorsement from notable figures such as Barack Obama and a slew of five-star reviews, this novel promises a thrilling and intellectually stimulating journey. Ryland Grace, a lone astronaut, finds himself on a...
    Paperback
    $2000
    Elsewhere:
    $2400
    (5)
    In Stock
    Ships today
  • On Sale
    14% off
    Red Rising
    The first book in the incredible New York Times bestselling series Darrow is a Helldiver, toiling beneath the surface of Mars. As a member of the Red caste, he performs grueling labor in the belief that his sacrifice will enable future generations to one day inhabit the surface of the Red Planet. The Reds are humankind's lowest caste, living in...
    Paperback
    $1900
    Elsewhere:
    $2799
    (1)
    In Stock
    Ships today
  • Crescent City Paperback Box Set
    A beautiful box set containing all three paperback instalments of the Crescent City series from #1 bestselling global phenomenon Sarah J. Maas. BOUND BY BLOOD. TEMPTED BY DESIRE. UNLEASHED BY DESTINY. Maas has established herself as a fantasy fiction titan - Time Think Game of Thrones meets Buffy the Vampire Slayer with a drizzle of E.L. James – Telegraph Spiced...
    Set
    $5499
    Elsewhere:
    $7000
    In Stock
    Ships today
  • The Score
    Welcome to Briar U! Get ready for your newest obsession... Discover the addictive world of the Off-Campus series from The Queen of Hockey Romance, Elle Kennedy! Read The Score now for the perfect friends with benefits romance! He knows how to score, on and off the ice... Allie Hayes is in crisis mode. With graduation looming, she still doesn't have...
    Paperback
    $2499
    Elsewhere:
    $2799
    In Stock
    Ships today
  • New Release
    On Mystic Lake
    One of the greatest storytellers of our time - Delia Owens, author of Where the Crawdads Sing Annie Colwater's only child has just left home for school in England. On that same day, her husband of twenty years confesses that he's in love with a younger woman. Left alone in the beautiful California house which was once a home, Annie...
    Paperback
    $3100
    Elsewhere:
    $3800
    In Stock
    Ships today

Why buy from us?

Book Hero is not a chain store or big box retailer. We're an independent 100% NZ-owned business on a mission to help more Kiwis rediscover a love of books and reading!

Service & Delivery

Service & Delivery

Our warehouse in Auckland holds over 100,000 books, toys, board games and puzzles in-stock so you're not waiting for your order to arrive from overseas.

Auckland Bookstore

Auckland Bookstore

We're primarily an online store, but for your convenience you can pick up your order for free from our bookstore, which is right next door to our warehouse in Hobsonville.

Our Gifting Service

Our Gifting Service

Books make wonderful thoughtful gifts and we're here to help with gift-wrapping and cards. We can even send your gift directly to your loved one.