The big ten books of 2009

1. King Gesa r , by Alai

Known as the world’s longest epic, King Gesar is an ancient Tibetan story about the legendary King Gesar’s birth, fight against evil and return to heaven. Tibetan author Alai joined the worldwide Myth Series project, initiated by British publisher Canongate Books, to retell the legend, some five years ago.
The author spent several years journeying in the areas where Tibetans believe King Gesar once lived. He also visited folk storytellers – farmers or herders, who wake up from a dream and suddenly begin telling the story of the King.
He structured the story with the parallel lives of King Gesar with modern day ballad singer Jigme.
Alai gained great fame with the best seller Red Poppies, a book based on legends in his hometown, where the Khampa Tibetans have lived for centuries. At the height of his writing career, Alai ran a science-fiction magazine based in Chengdu, Sichuan province, and successfully turned it into one of the world’s leading science fiction magazines, with a circulation of 400,000 in just a few years.
2. Frog, by Mo Yan

This is another iconic work by Mo Yan, one of the most important and prolific writers in today’s China. The bold novel is destined to become a classic as it deals with the sensitive topic of the family planning policy.
Mo says he has built “a lab of human nature” where he subjects the characters to extreme circumstances in order to determine what is the essence of humanity. In this novel, the protagonist is based on Mo’s aunt, a countryside doctor who delivered Mo and thousands of others and carried out the family planning policy.
Different from other contemporary works that seem to be milking the cow of the “cultural revolution” (1966-76), Mo covers a broad time span, from the 1940s to the present day. The latter part of the book brilliantly reflects the bizarre realities of a materialistic Chinese society.
Xu Kun, who has a PhD in literature from the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences, is a faithful fan of Mo.
“After reading the novel, I have to say Mo Yan has found a smart way of writing about these topics,” Xu says.
3. Little Reunion, by Eileen Chang

Viewed by many critics as a classic, the largely autobiographic novel was published 14 years after the reclusive writer’s death. It depicts Chang’s relations with her family members and the bitter love story involving her first husband Hu Lancheng, a collaborator for the Japanese during World War II.
Best known among non-Chinese readers for Lust, Caution, on which Ang Lee based his award-winning film, Chang provides sharp insights into people’s personalities. Hsia Chih-tsing, a retired professor of Chinese at Columbia University, calls her the most gifted Chinese writer to emerge in the 1940s and compares her with writers like Flannery O’Connor and Franz Kafka.
The affairs of Chang’s declining aristocratic family and details of her love affairs in the book have, unsurprisingly, stirred up heated talk among Chinese readers and critics.
“The autobiographical work is important in that it provides new sources for research about its author,” says Zhang Yiwu, literature professor of Peking University. “In the book, a single woman’s ups and downs are interwoven with historical trends and changes.”