Border Town

July 27, 2009
Congwen writes movingly of rural China in this newly translated “modern pastoral” coming-of-age tale (first published in English in 1936, and banned in China under Mao's regime) centered on 13-year-old Cuicui. After her mother's death, Cuicui and her grandfather, a ferryman, lead a quiet life transporting passengers across a small stream near the mountain town of Chadong. As Cuicui begins to mature, she catches the eye of the two sons of a wealthy merchant. Her meddlesome but well-intentioned grandfather encourages both of them to woo her. Although the plot rotates around Cuicui's suitors and the old man's attempts to help her make a match, at the heart of the story is the depth of love between Cuicui and her grandfather with the tranquil environment a constant presence and comfort. Congwen paints rapturous images of nature; his writing sings with the joyful sounds of peasant life. Readers not only see rural China, they also hear it—the pounding of drums during the Dragon Boat Festival, the amorous ballads exchanged between young lovers and the songs the ferryman and Cuicui sing together in this vivid window into China's past.

August 1, 2009
Often compared with Pearl Bucks The Good Earth, this novelwidely regarded as Shens masterpiecewas first published in 1934. Like many prewar novels, it was subsequently banned during the Cultural Revolution but has since been rediscovered and is offered here in a new translation. Set in Chadong, a border town in the authors own West Hunan province, the novel is a love letter to that place and to the small-town peasants and soldiers who lived there. As such, it often seemsto a Western readerto be an odd combination of travelogue and documentary, more focused on local manners and mores than on character or plot. The spare story, told in an equally spare style, concerns two brothers who fall in love with the same girl, the teenage granddaughter of an elderly ferryman. The tale is not without its charms and psychological insights, but it remains the setting, both place and time, that commands center stage here.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2009, American Library Association.)