20 Fragments of a Ravenous Youth

Xiaolu Guo

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English

Vintage
02 March 2009

Fiction & Literature; Modern & contemporary fiction (post c 1945)

A brave young woman negotiates Beijing life in search of love and friendship in the daring new novel by Xiaolu Guo, Orange Prize shortlisted author and 'one of China's most successful literary exports' (Guardian)

Life as a film extra in Beijing might seem hard, but Fenfang won't be defeated. She has travelled 1800 miles to seek her fortune in the city, and has no desire to return to the never-ending sweet potato fields back home. Determined to live a modern life, Fenfang works as a cleaner in the Young Pioneer's movie theatre, falls in love with unsuitable men and keeps her kitchen cupboard stocked with UFO instant noodles. As Fenfang might say, Heavenly Bastard in the Sky, isn't it about time I got my lucky break?

Longlisted for the Man Asian Literary Prize.

By: Xiaolu Guo
Imprint: Vintage
Country of Publication: United Kingdom
Dimensions: Height: 198mm, Width: 129mm, Spine: 13mm
Weight: 149g
ISBN: 9780099512936
ISBN 10: 0099512939
Pages: 208
Publication Date: 02 March 2009
Audience: General/trade , ELT Advanced
Format: Paperback
Publisher's Status: Active

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: her feature, How is Your Fish Today? (2006) was screened at international film festivals and the ICA, London. She is currently Cannes Film Festival Cinefondation resident, based in Paris.

Reviews for 20 Fragments of a Ravenous Youth

A breath of the freshest air imaginable. She cuts through the smog of hype and platitude -- Boyd Tonkin * Independent * A pure and bracing blast of universal youth... I loved it. It shines with the utterly blameless, scarily fragile arrogance of youth itself, the absolute certainty that death is better than middle age * Daily Telegraph * Both a personal odyssey and an insightful commentary about modern Chinese society and life itself... Xiaolu Guo is an instinctive, humane witness, her atmospheric, unusually physical narratives are alive and attractively insistent, inspired variations on the theme of quest * Irish Times * Funny and melancholy, scintillatingly observed, and has a very big heart * The Times * A nihilistic, Generation X-style manifesto... Its impudent, hand-on-hip attitude cannot fail to charm * New Statesman *