天高地厚

Bat Village, on the plain of eastern Hebei, is so poor that in the early 1970s the whole village leaves to beg. Rong Hanjun, a young militia leader trapped in a marriage arranged through an exchange of brides, secretly farms wasteland on the mountain with Bao Yuezhi, the woman he loves, and is sentenced to eight years for it. Released early when reform begins, he sets up the first village enterprise, a handbag workshop, and runs the village for twenty years, using bribes and threats when he needs them. A younger generation looks for other paths: Liang Shuangya, who lives for the land, and his childhood sweetheart Bao Zhen, who tries one way after another to give the farmers a future, from reclaiming wasteland to a pickle factory, a farmers' association and an eco-village. Three families, the Baos, the Rongs and the Liangs, rise and fall over thirty years of change.

AI-generated summary

About the book

Form

Novel

Genres

Family (assigned by AI)

Set in

China

First published

2002 by Beijing October Literature and Art Publishing House

Author's age

39 when first published