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Traveling from his rural home in Freshwind to the city of Xi'an, Happy brings only an eternally positive attitude, his devoted best friend Wufu, and a pair of high-heeled women's shoes he hopes to fill with the love of his life.  In Xi'an, Happy and Wufu find jobs as trash pickers sorting through the city's filth, but Happy refuses to be deterred by inauspicious beginnings. In his eyes, dusty birds become phoenixes, the streets become rivers, and life is what you make of it. When he meets the beautiful Yichun, he imagines she is the one to fill the shoes and his Cinderella-esque dream. But when the harsh city conditions and the crush of societal inequalities take the life of his friend and shake Happy to his soul, he'll need more than just his unrelenting optimism to hold on to the belief that something better is possible.","brand":"WoB","offers":[{"title":"GB \/ VERY_GOOD \/ INTERNAL","offer_id":49511420199185,"sku":"GOR009802463","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":false},{"title":"GB \/ NEW \/ GARDNERS","offer_id":49735491420433,"sku":"NGR9781611097429","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true},{"title":"US \/ VERY_GOOD \/ SBYB","offer_id":50185747890449,"sku":"CIN1611097428VG","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":false}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0784\/4072\/6801\/files\/1611097428.jpg?v=1751449479"},{"product_id":"broken-wings-book-jia-pingwa-9781910760451","title":"Broken Wings","description":"Broken Wings tells the story of Butterfly, who is kidnapped and taken to a remote mountain village devoid of young women. 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From his deathbed he gives voice to the generations of villagers to whom he devoted his life’s work, and four all-too-human souls whose struggles defined an era.  A soldier, a peasant, a revolutionary and a politician. When revolt and reform take hold of the wartorn plains, all play their debased roles in the mythic cycle of avarice, vengeance and suffering.  As his four tragedies interweave, the cracked lips of the dying sage conjure a stark vision: a retelling of the forging of the People’s Republic – from turbulent birth to absurd reversal – whispered from its uncharted margins.","brand":"WoB","offers":[{"title":"GB \/ VERY_GOOD \/ INTERNAL","offer_id":49638723649809,"sku":"GOR012799670","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":false},{"title":"GB \/ NEW \/ GARDNERS","offer_id":49740836110609,"sku":"NGR9781838905255","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":false}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0784\/4072\/6801\/files\/1838905251.jpg?v=1751436178"},{"product_id":"mountain-whisperer-book-jia-pingwa-9781910760697","title":"The Mountain Whisperer","description":"Modern master Jia Pingwa's novel which retells the turbulent birth of modern China from its rural margins. 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Hai Ruo strives to keep the sisterhood together and seeks spiritual intervention to provide answers, but the cracks grow wider as pressure closes in.","brand":"WoB","offers":[{"title":"GB \/ NEW \/ GARDNERS","offer_id":49742296645905,"sku":"NGR9781838905408","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true},{"title":"GB \/ LIKE_NEW \/ INTERNAL","offer_id":51362241052945,"sku":"GOR014240580","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":false},{"title":"GB \/ VERY_GOOD \/ INTERNAL","offer_id":51437708771601,"sku":"GOR013651911","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":false}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0784\/4072\/6801\/files\/1838905405.jpg?v=1750995306"},{"product_id":"earthen-gate-book-jia-pingwa-9781912436699","title":"The Earthen Gate","description":"\u003cp\u003e\u003cem\u003e'From that moment onwards, the dog and I both found ourselves incapable of ever cherishing a sense of belonging.'\u003c\/em\u003eConstantly bickering with her shallow friend Brow, beginning correspondence courses she will never finish, helping sage-like Grandpa Cloud Forest with his mystical healing and stealthily avoiding matrimony with her less-than-impressive fianc  Old Ran, Plum's life appears to be puttering along what seems like a tediously predictable path. But when the village home she cherishes comes under threat from big city capitalists, she finds herself thrust into a series of adventures with a mercurial rogue called Chivalry. \u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003eThis raucous, and at times achingly poignant tale combines earthy humour, ancient wisdom and thrilling action to highlight the impact of creeping urbanisation on traditional country folk.","brand":"WoB","offers":[{"title":"GB \/ NEW \/ GARDNERS","offer_id":49744108126481,"sku":"NGR9781912436699","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true},{"title":"US \/ NEW \/ INGRAM","offer_id":51053583761681,"sku":"NIN9781912436699","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":false}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0784\/4072\/6801\/files\/1912436698.jpg?v=1751315360"},{"product_id":"shaanxi-opera-book-jia-pingwa-9781542016872","title":"The Shaanxi Opera","description":"Winner of the Mao Dun Literature Prize.   From one of China’s most celebrated authors comes a masterful novel about modernity and tradition, love and obsession, and economic change and quixotic dreams—all set against the backdrop of a rapidly urbanizing China.  In post–Cultural Revolution China, in the fading village of Freshwind, the fates of two households are shifting.  The Bais, once the most powerful family in the region, have fallen from status. Their beautiful daughter, Snow Bai, an embodiment of tradition, pursues a career in a vanishing art form. The Xias, enthusiastic members of the Party, are on the rise. Their favorite son, Wind Xia, is a citified politician whose marriage to Snow Bai could unite the two families. But in a village casting about for a new road to prosperity, fortunes can change. Watching it all unfold is a local outcast named Spark. The inveterate busybody is given to strange visions and flights of fancy, and is motivated by the only constant in Freshwind: his mad love for Snow Bai.  Expansive, funny, monumental, and deeply poignant, Jia Pingwa’s The Shaanxi Opera is a keenly observant portrait of China in an era of globalization, societal upheaval, and the growing influence of popular culture.","brand":"WoB","offers":[{"title":"GB \/ NEW \/ GARDNERS","offer_id":49744111108369,"sku":"NGR9781542016872","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":false}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0784\/4072\/6801\/files\/1542016878.jpg?v=1750761202"},{"product_id":"wild-land-book-jia-pingwa-9781912436729","title":"The Wild Land","description":null,"brand":"WoB","offers":[{"title":"GB \/ NEW \/ GARDNERS","offer_id":49744227762449,"sku":"NGR9781912436729","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0784\/4072\/6801\/files\/1912436728.jpg?v=1750932049"},{"product_id":"ruined-city-book-jia-pingwa-9780806151731","title":"Ruined City","description":"When originally published in 1993, Ruined City (Fei Du) was promptly banned by China's State Publishing Administration, ostensibly for its explicit sexual content. Since then, award-winning author Jia Pingwa's vivid portrayal of contemporary China's social and economic transformation has become a classic, viewed by critics and scholars of Chinese literature as one of the most important novels of the twentieth century. Howard Goldblatt's deft translation now gives English-speaking readers their first chance to enjoy this masterpiece of social satire by one of China's most provocative writers.   While eroticism, exoticism, and esoteric minutiae - the \"\"pornography\"\" that earned the opprobrium of Chinese officials - pervade Ruined City, this tale of a famous contemporary writer's sexual and legal imbroglios is an incisive portrait of politics and culture in a rapidly changing China. In a narrative that ranges from political allegory to parody, Jia Pingwa tracks his antihero Zhuang Zhidie through progressively more involved and inevitably disappointing sexual liaisons. Set in a modern metropolis rife with power politics, corruption, and capitalist schemes, the novel evokes an unrequited romantic longing for China's premodern, rural past, even as unfolding events caution against the trap of nostalgia. Amid comedy and chaos, the author subtly injects his concerns about the place of intellectual seriousness, censorship, and artistic integrity in the changing conditions of Chinese society.   Rich with detailed description and vivid imagery, Ruined City transports readers into a world abounding with the absurdities and harshness of modern life.","brand":"WoB","offers":[{"title":"GB \/ VERY_GOOD \/ INTERNAL","offer_id":49894337872145,"sku":"GOR009434058","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":false},{"title":"US \/ NEW \/ INGRAM","offer_id":51007772590353,"sku":"NIN9780806151731","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":false},{"title":"GB \/ NEW \/ INGRAM","offer_id":52120408719633,"sku":"NLS9780806151731","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true},{"title":"US \/ GOOD \/ SBYB","offer_id":53054176198929,"sku":"CIN0806151730G","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":false}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0784\/4072\/6801\/files\/0806151730.jpg?v=1767347945"},{"product_id":"turbulence-book-jia-pingwa-9780802139726","title":"Turbulence","description":"In this dazzling, earthy novel -- winner of the prestigious Pegasus Prize for Literature -- Jia Pingwa presents an unforgettable chronicle of rural China, a world at once utterly alien and uncannily familiar. Called \"impressive and revealing\" (Kirkus Reviews), Turbulence follows the lives of two peasants, Golden Dog and Water Girl, through the post-Mao years and sets their star-crossed love for each other against the political upheavals of China itself. Pitted against the bureaucracy that hamstrings modern China, Golden Dog is an idealistic reporter not afraid to lash out at the abuses and corruption of the rival Tian and Gong clans. As he winds through a fascinating cast of revolutionary cadres, bureaucrats, fortune-tellers, blacksmiths, farmers, and artisans, Golden Dog, however, suffers a series of setbacks. Despite his love for the saintly Water Girl, the two seem destined to be kept apart by the vicissitudes of politics and culture -- she twice widowed and he pressured into an engagement with the seductive Yingying and, racked by guilt, turning at times to the lovely Shi Hua for solace. Part epic story, part love story, part political parable, Turbulence places the reader in a world where the I Ching exists alongside The Thoughts of Chairman Mao. Yet the sheer humanity of the novel transcends both cultural and political differences and makes it stunningly resonant to our own culture. \"A rare, richly detailed, and insightful account of life in a Chinese village ... 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