Golden Age (Penguin Modern Classics)

The bestselling novel by cult writer Wang Xiaobo, a satire of the Cultural Revolution, in its first full English translation

'Wang Xiaobo is a truly unique writer, and there are very few writers like him' Ai Weiwei

'Fills the reader with aching poignancy, and yet makes them want to laugh out loud' Jung Chang, author of Wild Swans

Twenty-one year old Wang Er, stationed in a remote mountain commune, spends his days herding oxen, napping and dreaming of losing his virginity. His dreams come true in the shape of the beautiful doctor Cheng Qinyang. So begins the riotously funny story of their illicit love affair, the Party officials who enjoy their forced confessions a little too much, and Wang's life under the Communist regime: his misadventures as a biology lecturer in a Beijing university, and his entanglements with family, friends and lovers. Golden Age is an explosive, subversive, wild and hilarious satire, featuring one of literature's great protagonists, a sensation when it was published in the 1990s and beloved today.

Reviews

No solemn, reverent account, this is a book of many erections ... playful, though undercut with cynicism