RED SORGHUM – Novel by Mo Yan

His works are epic historical novels (always characterized by hallucinatory realism), and containing elements of black humor. Guan Moye (better known by the pen name Mo Yan), is a Chinese novelist. He was born in 1955, in Gaomi County in Shandong province to a family of farmers, and was 11 years old when the Cultural Revolution was launched. At the age of 18, he began work at a cotton factory. During this period, his access to literature was largely limited to novels in the socialist realist style. His first novel was Falling Rain on a Spring Night, published in 1981. His works are predominantly social commentary, and he is strongly influenced by the realism of Gabriel García Márquez.

In Red Sorghum, Mo Yan portrays the brutal realities of war, which had not be portrayed before. It was Mo’s first novel and remains one of his best-known works. Red Sorghum, consists in five volumes. Red Sorghum’s plot revolves around three generations of the Shandong family (between 1923 and 1976). The narrator tells the story of his family’s struggles. A legend in China (where it won major literary awards and inspired an Oscar), Red Sorghum is a book in which fable and history collide to produce fiction that is entirely new and unforgettable. The novel is authentic in reflecting the attitudes and actions of a large majority of the Chinese people who live in the rural areas. The themes of internecine fighting, make Red Sorghum an unusual and interesting work.

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