Bearing Word

The kingdoms of Pisha in the east and Heile in the west have been at war for decades, and with letters cut off, secret message-bearers carry word between them. Ku, a renowned translator of Pisha who speaks dozens of languages, is hired to take a young she-donkey, Xie, to Heile as if she were a message. He protests that he carries words, not donkeys; he is told the donkey is a word too. Xie can hear the dead speak and see the shapes and colours of sounds. Man and donkey set out together across battlefields and the deserts that lie between languages, witnessing deaths and strange events on the way.

AI-generated summary

About the book

Form

Novel

Genres

War, Speculative (assigned by AI)

First published

2018 by Yilin Press

Author's age

56 when first published

ISBN

9787544775090 (original)

9781913891336 (Balestier Press, United Kingdom)