A Thousand Years of Good Prayers by Yiyun Li

A Thousand Years of Good Prayers by Yiyun Li

Brilliant and original, A Thousand Years of Good Prayers introduces a remarkable new writer whose breathtaking stories are set in China and among Chinese Americans in the United States. In this rich, astonishing collection, Yiyun Li illuminates how mythology, politics, history, and culture intersect with personality to create fate. From the bustling heart of Beijing, to a fast-food restaurant in Chicago, to the barren expanse of Inner Mongolia, A Thousand Years of Good Prayers reveals worlds both foreign and familiar, with heartbreaking honesty and in beautiful prose.

"Immortality," winner of The Paris Review's Plimpton Prize for new writers, tells the story of a young man who bears a striking resemblance to a dictator and so finds a calling to immortality. In "The Princess of Nebraska," a man and a woman who were both in love with a young actor in China meet again in America and try to reconcile the lost love with their new lives.

"After a Life" illuminates the vagaries of marriage, parenthood, and gender, unfolding the story of a couple who keep a daughter hidden from the world. And in "A Thousand Years of Good Prayers," in which a man visits America for the first time to see his recently divorced daughter, only to discover that all is not as it seems, Li boldly explores the effects of communism on language, faith, and an entire people, underlining transformation in its many meanings and incarnations.

These and other daring stories form a mesmerizing tapestry of revelatory fiction by an unforgettable writer.

Shall I Go, Where Causes End, Kinder Than Solitude, A Thousand Years of Good Prayers, The Vagrants, and Gold Boy, Emerald Girl are among Yiyun Li's works of fiction, as well as the memoir Dear Friend, from My Life I Write to You in Your Life. She has won numerous accolades, including the PEN/Hemingway Award, the PEN/Jean Stein Book Award, a MacArthur Foundation fellowship, and the Windham-Campbell Prize, and was featured in The New Yorker's fiction issue 20 Under 40. The New Yorker, A Public Place, The Best American Short Stories, and The O have all published her work. Among other publications, Henry Prize Tales. She lives in Princeton, New Jersey, and lectures at Princeton University.

SKU	Unavailable
ISBN 13	9780812973334
ISBN 10	081297333X
Title	A Thousand Years of Good Prayers
Author	Yiyun Li
Condition	Unavailable
Binding Type	Paperback
Publisher	Random House USA Inc
Year published	2006-09-12
Number of pages	256
Prizes	Nominated for Orange Prize for New Writers 2006
Cover note	Book picture is for illustrative purposes only, actual binding, cover or edition may vary.