{"product_id":"soul-mountain-isbn-9780066210827","title":"Soul Mountain","description":"\u003cp\u003e\u003cstrong\u003e“If a successful novelist is one who tells us something new about the human spirit and a successful novel transports us to another world, then Gao and \u003cem\u003eSoul Mountain\u003c\/em\u003e have succeeded spectacularly.” — \u003cem\u003eWashington Post Book World\u003c\/em\u003e\u003c\/strong\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eAn extraordinary work of immense wisdom and profound beauty by the winner of the Nobel Prize in Literature \u003c\/strong\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eIn 1983 Chinese playwright, critic, fiction writer, and painter Gao Xingjian was diagnosed with lung cancer and faced imminent death. But six weeks later, a second examination revealed the cancer was gone, and he was thrown back into the world of the living. Faced with a repressive cultural environment and the threat of a spell in a prison farm, Gao fled Beijing and began a journey of 15,000 kilometers over a period of five months. The result of this epic voyage of discovery is \u003cem\u003eSoul Mountain\u003c\/em\u003e.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eA bold, lyrical, prodigious novel, \u003cem\u003eSoul Mountain\u003c\/em\u003e probes the human soul with an uncommon directness and candor. Interwoven with a myriad of stories and countless memorable characters—from venerable Daoist masters and Buddhist nuns to mythical Wild Men, deadly Qichun snakes, and farting buses—is the narrator's poignant inner journey and search for freedom.\u003c\/p\u003e | \u003cp\u003eIn 1983 Chinese playwright, critic, fiction writer, and painter Gao Xingjian (pronounced gow shing-jen) was diagnosed with lung cancer and faced imminent death.  But six weeks later, a second examination revealed there was no cancer -- he had won \"a reprieve from death\" and had been thrown back into the world of the living.  Faced with a repressive cultural environment and the threat of a spell in a prison farm, Gao fled Beijing.  He traveled to the remote mountains and ancient forests of Sichuan in southwest China and from there back to the east coast, a journey of fifteen thousand kilometers over a period of five months.  The results of this epic voyage of discovery is \u003cem\u003eSoul Mountain.\u003c\/em\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eA bold, lyrical, prodigious novel, \u003cem\u003eSoul Mountain\u003c\/em\u003e probes the human soul with an uncommon directness and candor.  Interwoven with the myriad of stories and countless memorable characters -- from venerable Daosit masters and Buddhist nuns to mythical Wild Men, deadly Qichun snakes, and farting buses -- is the narrator's poignant inner journey and search for freedom. \u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eFleeing the social conformity required by the Communist government, he wanders deep into the regions of the Qiang, Miago, and Yi peoples located on the fringes of Han Chinese civilization and discovers a plethora of different traditions, history, legends, folk songs, and landscapes. Slowly, with the help of memory, imagination, and sensory experience, he reconstructs his personal past. He laments the impact of the Cultural Revolution on the ecology -- both human and physical -- of China. And in a polyphony of narrating selves -- the narrator's \"I\" spawns a \"you,\" a \"she,\" and a \"he,\" each with a distinct perspective and voice -- the novel delights in the freedom of the imagination to expand the notion of the individual self.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eStorytelling saves the narrator from a deep loneliness that is part of the human condition. His search for meaning -- in life, in the journey -- turns up the possibility that there may be no meaning. The elusive Lingshan (\"Soul Mountain\"), which becomes the object of his quest, never yields up its secrets, but the journey is a rich, strange, provocative, and rewarding one. \u003cem\u003eSoul Mountain\u003c\/em\u003e is a novel of immense wisdom and profound beauty. \u003c\/p\u003e | \u003cp\u003e“Engaging and elegant…\u003cem\u003eSoul Mountain\u003c\/em\u003e is a quirky, thick, playful monster of a book, a bit like what one might expect if Beckett or Ionesco had traveled in China and been steeped in Chinese myths.” - \u003cb\u003e\u003ci\u003eNew York Times Book Review\u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e“If a successful novelist is one who tells us something new about the human spirit and a successful novel transports us to another world, then Gao and Soul Mountain have succeeded spectacularly.” - \u003cb\u003e\u003ci\u003eWashington Post Book World\u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e“A true work of great literature.” - \u003cb\u003e\u003ci\u003eLos Angeles Times Book Review\u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e“Remarkable not only for its magical tales, folkloric roots and eroticism but also for its patchwork of narrative styles, from poems and monologues to ballads and conversations…Lyrical.” - \u003cb\u003e\u003ci\u003eNew York Times\u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e\"Chinese literature [of the future] will have to contend with the creative energy and the daring of Gao Xingjian.\" - \u003cb\u003e\u003ci\u003eLe Monde\u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e\"It is a relief to come to a book that celebrates the pleasures of literature with such gusto and knowingness.\" - \u003cb\u003e\u003ci\u003ePublishers Weekly\u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"HarperCollins","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":44889209471205,"sku":"NP9780066210827","price":27.0,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":false}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/1842\/7735\/files\/9780066210827.jpg?v=1773961027","url":"https:\/\/k12savings.com\/es\/products\/soul-mountain-isbn-9780066210827","provider":"K12savings","version":"1.0","type":"link"}