In a small village in the Balou Mountains, Fourth Wife You despairs of what the future holds for her four mentally-impaired children. A cure for the family curse appears, but it will extract a price so primal and complete that no one can be expected to make it except, perhaps, for a mother. A chilling and relentless tale of family responsibility and a mother's sacrifice, Marrow is Yan Lianke at his best. Translated from the original Chinese by Carlos Rojas

Author Biography

Yan Lianke has been called a 'master of imaginative satire' and named 'one of China's most successful fiction writers' by the New York Times. His satirical stories with often sensitive subjects have led to the banning of some of his works, including his novellaServe the People and the novel Dream of Ding Village. Yan's surrealist writing oscillates between military themes and the Chinese countryside, which lend the often absurdly miserable living conditions of rural life an equally surreal setting.