{"title":"Can Xue","description":"\u003cp\u003eDiscover the enthralling world of \u003cem\u003eCan Xue\u003c\/em\u003e, a celebrated Chinese author renowned for her experimental and avant-garde storytelling. With a distinct narrative style, Can Xue has captivated readers globally, delving into the intricacies of human consciousness and exploring the surreal aspects of everyday life.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\n\u003cp\u003eAmong her profound works, you'll find \u003cem\u003eBarefoot Doctor\u003c\/em\u003e, a compelling tale that delves into the mysteries of healing and spirituality. In \u003cem\u003eFive Spice Street\u003c\/em\u003e, Can Xue explores the intersecting lives of a vibrant community, revealing the underlying tensions and surrealities of urban life.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cem\u003eI Live in the Slums\u003c\/em\u003e presents a vivid portrayal of marginalised communities, shedding light on the struggles and resilience found within them. Meanwhile, \u003cem\u003eLove in the New Millennium\u003c\/em\u003e explores the complexities of modern relationships, intertwining narratives that are both haunting and reflective.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\n\u003cp\u003eImmerse yourself in the evocative, dreamlike world of Can Xue with \u003cem\u003eMother River\u003c\/em\u003e, a narrative journey that traverses the boundaries of the subconscious. Finally, \u003cem\u003eThe Enchanting Lives of Others\u003c\/em\u003e captivates with its portrayal of ordinary lives touched by extraordinary experiences.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\n\u003cp\u003eCan Xue's work is a must-read for those intrigued by bold narratives that challenge conventional storytelling and invite you to explore the depths of human emotion and surreal imagination.\u003c\/p\u003e","products":[{"product_id":"mother-river-by-can-xue-9781960385314","title":"Mother River","description":"\u003cdiv class=\"book-description\"\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cb\u003eWinner of the 2015 Best Translated Book Award\u003c\/b\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\n\u003cp\u003eIn \u003ci\u003eMother River\u003c\/i\u003e, Can Xue, one of China's most daring and visionary writers, invites us into a surreal landscape where reality is as fluid as a river itself. This collection of thirteen stories weaves together vivid, dreamlike narratives that challenge our perceptions of time, identity, and existence.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\n\u003cp\u003eThrough her signature blend of the absurd and the profound, Can Xue explores the fragile boundaries between the known and unknown, between humanity and nature. In these tales, a man tries to chase down an elusive golden peacock, a woman communicates with mysterious, shifting forms of light, and the river that runs through a small village seems to pulse with memories of its own.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\n\u003cp\u003eSurreal, provocative, and unique, \u003ci\u003eMother River\u003c\/i\u003e reinforces Can Xue's status as one of the most rewarding and complex writers working today—and a perennial favourite to win the Nobel Prize.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003c\/div\u003e","brand":"Unknown","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":46844673589484,"sku":"9781960385314","price":50.0,"currency_code":"NZD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0705\/7784\/8556\/files\/27148993482885.jpg?v=1758851135"},{"product_id":"barefoot-doctor-by-can-xue-9780300274035","title":"Barefoot Doctor","description":"\u003cdiv class=\"book-description\"\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cem\u003eBarefoot Doctor\u003c\/em\u003e is a profound, poignant story of a village healer and her community, crafted by one of the world’s great contemporary novelists.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cb\u003eA complex and illuminating portrait of a group of healers in China . . . [that] offers profound insights about what it means to pursue and live a fulfilling life.” — \u003cem\u003ePublishers Weekly\u003c\/em\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cb\u003eA barefoot doctor herself, [Can Xue] has a unique and powerful way of transporting readers to new worlds where reality and magic are intertwined, and she uses her own experiences to make this novel feel more personal.” — Emily Park, \u003cem\u003eBooklist\u003c\/em\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\n\u003cp\u003eIn rural Yun Village, herbalist Mrs. Yi lives with her husband in a cottage at the foot of Niulan Mountain, where she gathers herbs to treat the ailments of the villagers by day and studies medicine by night. Sickness and herbs are lovers, she tells her patients, rejoicing when they recover, comforting them when they do not. All the while, she hopes to find a worthy successor to take up her mantle. As curious younger villagers observe Mrs. Yi and begin imitating her work—planting gardens and studying the art of healing—they soon discover that the line dividing life from death is porous, and the mountain is more mysterious than they ever knew.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\n\u003cp\u003eDrawing on her experiences as a barefoot doctor in her youth, Can Xue returns with a transporting novel that alights in the in-between spaces: between the living and the dead, healer and sick, nature and us.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003c\/div\u003e","brand":"Unknown","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":46853219320044,"sku":"9780300274035","price":28.99,"currency_code":"NZD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0705\/7784\/8556\/files\/24738093482294.jpg?v=1759192427"},{"product_id":"five-spice-street-by-can-xue-9780300167962","title":"Five Spice Street","description":"\u003cdiv class=\"book-description\"\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eThe first full-length novel by Chinese author Can Xue to appear in English\u003c\/strong\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cem\u003eFive Spice Street\u003c\/em\u003e tells the story of a street in an unnamed city whose inhabitants speculate on the life of a mysterious Madam X. The novel interweaves their endless suppositions into a work that is at once political parable and surreal fantasia. Some think X is 50 years old; others that she is 22. Some believe she has occult powers and has thereby enslaved the young men of the street; others think she is a clever trickster playing mind games with the common people.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\n\u003cp\u003eWho is Madam X? How has she brought the good people of Five Spice Street to their knees either in worship or in exasperation? The unknown narrator takes no sides in the endless interplay of visions, arguments, and opinions. The investigation rages, as the street becomes a Walpurgisnacht of speculations, fantasies, and prejudices. Madam X is a vehicle whereby the people bare their souls, through whom \u003cem\u003ethey\u003c\/em\u003e reveal themselves even as they try to penetrate the mystery of her extraordinary powers.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cem\u003eFive Spice Street\u003c\/em\u003e is one of the most astonishing novels of the past twenty years. Exploring the collective consciousness of this little street of ordinary people, Can Xue penetrates the deepest existential anxieties of the present day—whether in China or in the West—where the inevitable impermanence of identity struggles with the narrative within which identity must compose itself.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003c\/div\u003e","brand":"Unknown","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":46853259264236,"sku":"9780300167962","price":71.99,"currency_code":"NZD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0705\/7784\/8556\/files\/23677363482294.jpg?v=1759193436"},{"product_id":"i-live-in-the-slums-by-can-xue-9780300247435","title":"I Live in the Slums","description":"\u003cdiv class=\"book-description\"\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cb\u003eLonglisted for the 2021 International Booker Prize\u003c\/b\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cb\u003eA major new collection of stories by one of the most exciting and creative voices in contemporary Chinese literature.\u003c\/b\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cem\u003eI Live in the Slums\u003c\/em\u003e by Can Xue observes no obvious conventions of plot or characterisation. That is the only rule it follows. Instead, it tends to limn a disordered and poetic state, given structure by philosophical wonder and emotional rigour.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\n\u003cp\u003eCombining elements of both Chinese materiality—the love of physical things—and Western abstract thinking, Can Xue invites her readers into an immersive landscape that blends empirical fact and illusion, mixes the physical and spiritual, and probes the space between consciousness and oblivion. She brings us to a place that is both readily familiar yet unmappable and makes us hyperaware of the inherent unreliability in our relationship to the world around us.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\n\u003cp\u003eDelightful, enchanting, and filled with secrets, Can Xue’s newest collection shines a light on the forces that give contours to the visible terrain we acknowledge as reality.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003c\/div\u003e","brand":"Unknown","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":46853266833644,"sku":"9780300247435","price":53.99,"currency_code":"NZD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0705\/7784\/8556\/files\/24472093482294.jpg?v=1759193849"},{"product_id":"love-in-the-new-millennium-by-can-xue-9780300278262","title":"Love in the New Millennium","description":"\u003cdiv class=\"book-description\"\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eLonglisted for the Man Booker International Prize 2019\u003c\/strong\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eThe most ambitious work of fiction by one of the world’s greatest writers\u003c\/strong\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\n\u003cp\u003e\"In this dreamlike novel . . . amid increasingly bizarre scenarios, appearances give way to hidden, otherworldly layers.\"\u003cbr\u003e\u003cem\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eNew Yorker\u003c\/strong\u003e\u003c\/em\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\n\u003cp\u003eIn this darkly comic novel, a group of women inhabits a world of constant surveillance, where informants lurk in the flower beds and conspiracies abound. Some try to flee—whether to a mysterious gambling bordello, underground ancestral homes, or Nest County, where traditional medicines can reshape or psychologically transport the self.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\n\u003cp\u003eCan Xue's mesmerizing storytelling traces love’s many guises—satirical, tragic, transient, lasting, nebulous, and fulfilling—against a kaleidoscopic backdrop of commerce and industry, fraud and exploitation, and sex and romance drawn from the East and the West.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003c\/div\u003e","brand":"Unknown","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":46853272240364,"sku":"9780300278262","price":28.99,"currency_code":"NZD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0705\/7784\/8556\/files\/24780363482294.jpg?v=1759194272"},{"product_id":"the-enchanting-lives-of-others-by-can-xue-9780300281651","title":"The Enchanting Lives of Others","description":"\u003cdiv class=\"book-description\"\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eA celebration of the beguiling power of literature, from one of the world's greatest storytellers\u003c\/strong\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\n\u003cp\u003eAt the Pigeon Book Club, a circle of readers joins in exhilarating meetings to discuss literature. The only requirements for entry are an all-encompassing love of books and an intuition that to read is to love and to love is to read.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\n\u003cp\u003eXiao Sang, a department store clerk, wonders if life can ever be as captivating as a novel. Newlyweds Fei and Han Ma struggle to build a marriage as Han Ma discovers a surprising gift for storytelling. Xiao Ma, a hopeful dreamer, explores the possibility of romance with an older man.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\n\u003cp\u003eBound by a shared passion for fiction, each book club member seeks to understand the relationship between the stories they read and the lives they lead, revelling in both the quotidian details and the ecstasy of aesthetics.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\n\u003cp\u003eThis is the most accessible work yet from the celebrated writer Can Xue: a utopian comedy and a work of profound joy, a love song to literary inspiration and the remarkable beauty of the ordinary. \u003cem\u003eThe Enchanting Lives of Others\u003c\/em\u003e explores what it means to know and be known to others through the transformative power of reading.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003c\/div\u003e","brand":"Unknown","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":47306962239724,"sku":"9780300281651","price":40.99,"currency_code":"NZD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0705\/7784\/8556\/files\/24814253482294.jpg?v=1771072634"}],"url":"https:\/\/bookhero.live\/collections\/can-xue.oembed","provider":"Book Hero","version":"1.0","type":"link"}