New York Times Bestseller

Balzac and the Little Chinese Seamstress is an enchanting tale that captures the magic of reading and the wonder of romantic awakening. An immediate international bestseller, it tells the story of two hapless city boys exiled to a remote mountain village for re-education during China's infamous Cultural Revolution. There the two friends meet the daughter of the local tailor and discover a hidden stash of Western classics in Chinese translation. As they flirt with the seamstress and secretly devour these banned works, the two friends find...

It's over ten years since Muo has visited China. When Muo hears that his first great love has been thrown into a Chinese jail for selling a newspaper article to the foreign press, he feels he must rush home and rescue her. He returns to a China where every

Comprising ancient texts and fables, stories within stories, and a young man's desperate search for his father's legacy, this beguiling tale has the enigmatic mystery of Eco's 'The Name Of The Rose', with the modernity and tenderness of the film, 'Lost in Translation'.

The Cultural Revolution in China is the theme of this novel. A testament to the terrible experiences of writer Dai Siji. It can also be described as an entreaty wrapped in the love between two souls (?). Over and above that, it is about the inner conflicts and moral dilemmas faced by two young hearts, packaged as a satire. The novel shows us how, during a particular period in China's political history, authority gets corrupted. That is the message of the book. Dai Siji..translated by Rajan Thoovara.