Change

Description

In "Change", Mo Yan, the 2012 Nobel Laureate in Literature, personalizes the political and social changes in his country over the past few decades in this novella disguised as autobiography-or vice-versa. Unlike most historical narratives from China, which are pegged to political events, "Change" is a representative of "people's history," a bottom-up rather than top-down view of a country in flux. By moving back and forth in time and focusing on small events and everyday people, Mo Yan breathes life into history by describing the effects of larger-than-life events on the average citizen.

Author description

Mo Yan has published dozens of short stories and novels in Chinese. His other works include Pow!; The Garlic Ballads; The Republic of Wine; Shifu; You'l Do Anything for a Laugh; Big Breasts & Wide Hips; and Life and Death Are Wearing Me Out. Howard Goldblatt is research professor of Chinese at the University of Notre Dame. Founding editor of Modern Chinese Literature, he has contributed essays and articles to the Washington Post, Times, Time, World Literature Today, and the Los Angeles Times, among other publications.