No Enemies, No Hatred
by Liu Xiaobo
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This collection of writings by the Chinese dissident Liu Xiaobo “shows why the Communist Party fears the intellectual-turned-activist and his ideas,” said Ellen Bork in The Wall Street Journal. Imprisoned for his views in 2008 and subsequently awarded the 2010 Nobel Peace Prize, Liu writes with “a keen eye for the cynicism and hypocrisy that warps Chinese society.” Whether writing about China’s rise, Tibet, or the 2008 Olympics, Liu “advances the antithesis to the Party line.”
China in Ten Words
by Yu Hua
(Pantheon, $26)
In these “caustic” essays explaining his country’s recent history, the novelist Yu Hua serves up “a people’s-eye view of a world in which the people have little place,” said Pico Iyer in Time. Yu has built his national portrait using 10 central concepts, “from people and leader to copycat and bamboozle.” He believes China has changed little since Mao, save that the madness has “donned a different costume.” In a nation where dealers in human blood buy $16 million apartments, all he has to do is report.
The Fat Years
by Chan Koonchung
(Nan A. Talese, $27)
Though officially banned, Chan Koonchung’s riotous satirical novel “has enjoyed a considerable underground audience in mainland China,” said Jonathan Fenby in the London Observer. Set in a euphorically prosperous near future, it follows a few citizens who start asking questions when an entire month mysteriously goes missing from the collective memory. A kidnapping eventually cracks open the mystery, but the lingering issue is whether a nation can move forward if it won’t confront its past.
Demystifying the Chinese Economy
by Justin Yifu Lin
(Cambridge, $28)
The World Bank’s chief economist “represents a new breed of Chinese scholar,” said James Pressley in Bloomberg.com. “Proud of his country’s successes yet reasonably frank about its failings,” Justin Yifu Lin attempts here to explain dispassionately how the Chinese economy so quickly shifted from the scarcity of the Mao years to average annual growth of 9.9 percent. China’s fiercest critics won’t agree with 100 percent of Lin’s analysis, but he’s written “the best book on China’s economy I’ve read.”
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Also of interest...in picture books for grown-upsfeature How About Never—Is Never Good for You?; The Undertaking of Lily Chen; Meanwhile, in San Francisco; The Portlandia Activity Book
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Author of the week: Karen Russell
feature Karen Russell could use a rest.
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The Double Life of Paul de Man by Evelyn Barish
feature Evelyn Barish “has an amazing tale to tell” about the Belgian-born intellectual who enthralled a generation of students and academic colleagues.
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Book of the week: Flash Boys: A Wall Street Revolt by Michael Lewis
feature Michael Lewis's description of how high-frequency traders use lightning-fast computers to their advantage is “guaranteed to make blood boil.”
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Also of interest...in creative rebellion
feature A Man Called Destruction; Rebel Music; American Fun; The Scarlet Sisters
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Author of the week: Susanna Kaysen
feature For a famous memoirist, Susanna Kaysen is highly ambivalent about sharing details about her life.
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You Must Remember This: Life and Style in Hollywood’s Golden Age by Robert Wagner
feature Robert Wagner “seems to have known anybody who was anybody in Hollywood.”
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Book of the week: Astoria: John Jacob Astor and Thomas Jefferson’s Lost Pacific Empire by Peter Stark
feature The tale of Astoria’s rise and fall turns out to be “as exciting as anything in American history.”