Yiyun Li's writing delves into the intricate tapestry of human experience, exploring themes of displacement, memory, and the search for belonging with profound emotional depth. Her prose is characterized by its quiet power and meticulous observation, drawing readers into the inner lives of her characters. Li masterfully navigates the complexities of cultural identity and the enduring impact of the past on the present. Her work offers a poignant and insightful perspective on the universal struggles of connection and understanding.
V povídkovém souboru Tisíc let vroucích modliteb se spisovatelka soustředí na osobní dramata obyčejných lidí, politická realita totalitního režimu zůstává jakoby v pozadí... Mnohem podstatnější roli zde hrají rodinné vztahy, emocionální vazby a generační střety. Podařilo se jí zachytit pro nás těžko pochopitelný svět moderní čínské kultury. Povídky tak nabízejí osobitý pohled na současný život v Číně i čínských emigrantů v USA, podaný s nevšední silou a virtuozitou.
Román americké autorky čínského původu se odehrává v rozmezí několika málo dnů na jaře roku 1979, během nichž v provinčním čínském městě v sobě najde několik stovek obyvatel občanskou odvahu vyjádřit veřejně protest proti politickému procesu, v němž byla po desetiletém věznění odsouzena k trestu smrti mladá žena. Příběh napsaný na motivy skutečných událostí z období takzvaného Pekingského jara zaujme propracovanou stavbou, důvěrnou znalostí prostředí a uměním zprostředkovat západnímu čtenáři kulturně odlišný myšlenkový svět.
The oldest written story on Earth, retold for children
'Any new book by Yiyun Li is a cause for celebration' Sigrid Nunez 'One of our finest living authors' New York Times
A tale set in today's America and China in the 1990s, follows the experiences of three people who in their youths were involved in a mysterious accident that resulted in a friend's fatal poisoning and years later are haunted by the possibility that one of them actually committed a murder
'One of our finest living authors ... propulsively entertaining' New York Times 'Sly, profound ... Electrifying' Observer 'Wonderfully strange and alive' Jon McGregor
The second collection of stories from Yiyun Li, author of the Guardian First Book Award-winning A Thousand Years of Good Prayers and The Vagrants.
'Days- the easiest possession. The days he had refused would come, one at a time. They would wait, every daybreak, with their boundless patience and indifference, seeing if they could turn me into an ally or an enemy to myself.' A woman's teenage son takes his own life. It is incomprehensible. The woman is a writer, and so she attempts to comprehend her grief in the space she knows best- on the page, as an imagined conversation with the child she has lost. He is as sharp and funny and serious in death as he was in life, and he will speak back to her, unable to offer explanation or solace, but not yet, not quite, gone. Taking the form of a dialogue between mother and son, Where Reasons End is an extraordinary portrait of parenthood, in all its painful contradictions of joy, humour and sorrow, and of what it is to lose a child.
The new novel from Yiyun Li, author of The Vagrants and the Guardian First Book Award-winning A Thousand Years of Good Prayers.
"Yiyun Li's searing personal story of hospitalizations for depression and thoughts of suicide is interlaced with reflections on the solace and affirmations of life and personhood that Li found in reading the journals, diaries, and fiction of other writers: William Trevor, Katherine Mansfield, and more"-- Provided by publisher
