English

In Urumqi, below the Tianshan mountains, in years poor in both goods and ideas, twelve-year-old Liu Ai is won over by a new English teacher from Shanghai, a gentle, elegant man with a dictionary under his arm. The boy dreams of owning a thick English dictionary himself and of speaking the language as purely as his teacher. While the adults around him bury any longing for refinement under drab uniform clothes, he chases it openly, and his sharp, restless eyes bring one hidden event and troubled heart after another to light. Teacher and pupil go on to share a moving and painful stretch of life.

AI-generated summary

About the book

Form

Novel

Genres

Coming of age (assigned by AI)

Set in

China

First published

2004 by People's Literature Publishing House

Author's age

44 when first published

ISBN

9780670020591 (Viking, United States)

9780143116547 (Penguin Books, United States)