{"product_id":"death-fugue-by-sheng-keyi-9781922146625","title":"Death Fugue","description":"\u003cdiv class=\"book-description\"\u003e\n\u003cp\u003ePublished for the first time in English by Giramondo, \u003cem\u003eDeath Fugue\u003c\/em\u003e is the bold attempt by a prominent Chinese novelist to confront the legacy of protest and suppression which haunts her generation. Sheng Keyi was born in Hunan province in 1973 and lives in Beijing. \u003cem\u003eDeath Fugue\u003c\/em\u003e is her sixth novel, and the second to be published in English translation, after \u003cem\u003eNorthern Girls\u003c\/em\u003e (2012).\u003c\/p\u003e\n\n\u003cp\u003eIt is a brave work of speculative fiction, a cross between \u003cem\u003eCloud Atlas\u003c\/em\u003e and \u003cem\u003e1984\u003c\/em\u003e, scathing in its irony, ingenious in its use of allegory, and acute in its understanding of the power of writing. The imagination that drives it is exuberant and unconstrained.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\n\u003cp\u003eIn a large square in the centre of Beiping, the capital of Dayang, a huge tower of excrement appears one day, causing unease in the population, and ultimately widespread civil unrest. The protest, in which poets play an important part, is put down violently.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\n\u003cp\u003eHaunted by the violence, and by his failure to support his girlfriend Qizi, who is one of the protest leaders, Yuan Mengliu gives up poetry in favour of medicine, and the antiseptic environment of the operating theatre. But every year he travels in search of Qizi, and on one of these trips, caught in a storm, he wakes to find himself in a perfect society called Swan Valley.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\n\u003cp\u003eIn this utopia, as he soon discovers, impulse and feeling are completely controlled, and every aspect of life regulated for the good of the nation, with terrible consequences.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\n\u003cp\u003eReviewed here in the New York Times.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003c\/div\u003e","brand":"Hachette Aotearoa New Zealand","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":46711249273068,"sku":"9781922146625","price":37.99,"currency_code":"NZD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0705\/7784\/8556\/files\/9877373482872.jpg?v=1754203958","url":"https:\/\/bookhero.co.nz\/products\/death-fugue-by-sheng-keyi-9781922146625","provider":"Book Hero","version":"1.0","type":"link"}