The Sky Dwellers

Zhang Yingcai has failed the university entrance exam, and his uncle, head of the township education office, sends him to Jieling, a school deep in the mountains, as a community teacher. There he finds a pig wandering into the classroom, pupils who carve their own textbooks for printing and a flag raised each day to the sound of a flute. He comes to know his colleagues: kindly headmaster Yu, who cares for his paralysed wife and boards a dozen pupils in his home; thrifty, careful Deng Youmi, whose every step is aimed at becoming a state teacher; and proud Sun Sihai, secretly in love for years with Wang Xiaolan, whose husband is paralysed. When Yingcai's letter of complaint costs the school a prize meant to repair its buildings, he is pushed aside.

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About the book

Form

Novel

Set in

China

First published

2009 by People's Literature Publishing House

Author's age

53 when first published

ISBN

9787500151517 (China Translation & Publishing House, China)