Description: A bestseller in China, "English" is a transcendent exploration of a boy's self-discovery, a country's shame, and the transporting power of language.
Review Quotes: One of The Wall Street Journal's Two Best Works of Fiction of the Year about Asia
"Refreshing . . . Anyone who has dreamed for something bigger in life will relate to the story." --Lijia Zhang, The Wall Street Journal Asia "Equally tender and searing . . . More than any other book I've read about Communist China, English conveys a sense of the time and place with clarity, authenticity and compassion." --Tiffany Lee-Youngren, The San Diego Union-Tribune "Deftly explores the politics of language during those treacherous times." --Travel + Leisure "Its story-telling and its narrative are both straightforward and clear . . . allow[ing] the drama of the story to open up naturally, unpretentiously . . . and yet also to crescendo into a tour de force of a conclusion. . . . [The translators'] English--and their English--is as fluid and conversational as Wang Gang's Chinese." --Rain Taxi "A fascinating and loving portrait of a painful childhood full of fond memories [that] allows us to glimpse the humanity we all have in common. For that reason, the book does what good literature should always do." --The Quarterly Conversation "A heart-wrenching coming-of-age story during one of the most tumultuous periods of modern history." --BookDragon "A 'Catcher in the Rye in China.' . . . This book's style reminded me of Waiting, the 1999 National Book Award-winning novel by Ha Jin. . . . I truly enjoyed this book." --Minnesota Reads "This compelling coming-of-age novel . . . paints a vivid picture of what life was like during the Cultural Revolution, with paranoia, suspicion, and distrust informing every relationship, even the closest ones."--Booklist "The pure friendship between the teenage boy and his English teachers is movingly beautiful; the depiction of the intellectuals of that particular period cuts to the bone. I highly recommend it."
--Mo Yan, winner of the Nobel Prize in Literature