Empires of Dust

Guojiadian is a poor village on salty ground, a place of beggars, hired hands, bachelors, debts and children sold to survive. Guo Cunxian's grandfather works himself to death building a mud-brick house; his father is stabbed to death while selling cakes. To feed his widowed mother, his uncle and his younger siblings through the famine years, Cunxian makes coffins, travelling far and wide with his carpenter's bag and saw. A good, hard-working man of rare ability, he contends with the envy of his neighbours and the indifference of officials, and over decades of reform leads the village from poverty to great wealth. But as money and power pile up, he can no longer hold back his own desires.

AI-generated summary

About the book

Form

Novel

Genres

Politics (assigned by AI)

Set in

China

First published

2008 by People's Literature Publishing House

Author's age

67 when first published

ISBN

9781910760338 (Sinoist Books, United Kingdom)