1971: Mao's cultural Revolution is at its peak. Two sons of doctors, sent to 're-education' camps, forced to carry buckets of excrement up and down mountain paths, have only their sense of humour to keep them going. Although the attractive daughter of the local tailor also helps to distract them from the task at hand.
The boys' true re-education starts, however, when they discover a hidden suitcase packed with the great Western novels of the nineteenth century. Their lives are transformed. And not only their lives: after listening to the stories of Balzac, the little seamstress will never be the same again.
- ISBN10 037541309X
- ISBN13 9780375413094
- Publish Date 11 September 2001 (first published 14 June 2001)
- Publish Status Out of Stock
- Publish Country US
- Imprint Knopf Publishing Group
- Format Hardcover
- Pages 197
- Language English