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Xiaolu Guo was born in a fishing village in south China. She studied film at the Beijing Film Academy and published six books in China before she moved to London in 2002. The English translation of Village of Stone (Chatto, 2004) was shortlisted for the Independent Foreign Fiction Prize and nominated for the International IMPAC Dublin Literary Award. Her first novel written in English, A Concise Chinese-English Dictionary for Lovers was published by Chatto in 2007 and shortlisted for the Orange Broadband Prize for Fiction. Xiaolu's film career continues to flourish; in 2007, she was Cannes Film Festival Cinefondation resident, based in Paris.
A refreshing departure from much of the recent Chinese fiction to reach these shores. The language has the pared-down simplicity of a fable; the effect is a bit like that of a Haruki Murakami novel * Times Literary Supplement * Open this book and you will see a Chinese girl stepping towards you out of China's past and into its present, with all her dreams and striving -- Xinran Exquisitely written and intricately contructed * Independent * Reading it is rather like finding yourself in a dream: once upon a time... People are going to like this book very much... What could have been a misery of a story has the mysterious charm of a fairy tale or a legend -- Doris Lessing
