This month we’re discussing Balzac and the Little Chinese Seamstress. It was highly recommended by a fellow book club member (Thanks Tom!), spent 23 weeks on the New York Times bestseller list when it came out in 2001 (in English), won a number of prizes in France, was translated to over a dozen languages and made into a movie directed by the author himself.

A semi-autobiographical story by Dai Sijie, this slim book (only 172 pages) is about two teenage city boys sent down to rural Sichuan during the Cultural Revolution, their encounters there with the villagers (particularly a lovely young seamstress), illicit readings of forbidden Western novels and, ultimately, the power of literature.

A bit on the author:

Dai Sijie was born into an educated middle class family in China in 1954, and was sent to a re-education camp in rural Sichuan from 1971-1974 during the Cultural Revolution. After, he completed high school and university (where he studied art history), then left for France on a scholarship in 1984 and has lived and worked there ever since.

Details

Date: Sunday, March 28
Time: 4pm
Venue: PAUL on Dongping Lu

Check out Garden Books for copies (RMB105), as I hear that Chaterhouse and Shanghai Books Trade are currently sold out. But, they might be stocked again by the time you call, so don't take my word for it.