A coming of age novel set in China. Dongliang once held high status as the grandson of an admired revolutionary but after his ancestry is questioned his life changes dramatically. This is a story about a father/son relationship but also a great insight in to the Chinese culture.
Disgraced Secretary Ku has been banished from the Party - it has been officially proved he does not have a fish-shaped birthmark on his bottom and is therefore not the son of a revolutionary martyr, but the issue of a river pirate and a prostitute. Mocked by the citizens of Milltown, Secretary Ku leaves the shore for a new life among the boat people on a fleet of industrial barges. Refusing to renounce his high status, he maintains a distance - with Dongliang, his teenage son - from the gossipy lowlifes who surround him. One day a feral little girl, Huixian, arrives looking for her mother, who has jumped to her death in the river. The boat people, and especially Dongliang, take her to their hearts. But Huixian sows conflict wherever she goes, and soon Dongliang is in the grip of an obsession for her. He takes on Life, Fate and the Party in the only way he knows . . .
Born in 1963 in Suzhou and now living in Beijing with his family, Su Tong is one
of China's most celebrated bestselling authors, shooting to international fame
in 1993 when Zhang Yimou's film of his novella Raise the Red Lantern was
nominated for an Oscar. Madwoman on the Bridge is his first collection of
short stories ever to be published. It was followed by his latest novel,
Check, a violent drama set in the aftermath of the Cultural Revolution.
