Evening, I made my one hundred and seventy-eighth scratch on the cave wall.
Despite her humble rural beginnings, Butterfly regards herself as a sophisticated young woman. So, when offered a lucrative job in the city, she jumps at the chance.
But instead of being given work, she is trafficked and sold to Bright Black, a desperate man from a poor mountain village.
Trapped in Bright’s cave home, Butterfly struggles to repel his lustful advances, and she plans her escape… not so easily done in this isolated and remote village where she is watched day and night.
Will her tenacity and free spirit survive, or will she be broken?
Industry Reviews
Jia Pingwa Research - Reviews of Broken Wings(only quotes useful for marketing The Mountain Whisperer have been lifted)
Nikkei Asian Reviewhttps://asia.nikkei.com/Editor-s-Picks/Tea-Leaves/Censorship-and-apathy-strip-China-s-branches-bare
Jia is a popular author in China. His books have been feted by critics and (at times) banned by the state. That he has written so openly about issues that many powerful people in his country would wish to remain unsaid is part of the complex legacy of the Cultural Revolution.
Writers like Jia, who bring stories like Butterfly's to the mainstream, help to stem (the) tide of indifference.
China Dialoguehttps://chinadialogue.net/en/cities/9033-novel-reveals-plight-of-china-s-villages/
Asian Review of Books
https://asianreviewofbooks.com/content/broken-wings-by-jia-pingwa/
Chinese writer Jia Pingwa is rooted in his own origin story ...(he) is from Shaanxi Province, which has places so remote that they can barely even be said to be forgotten, as they exist suspended in their own time and space.
The characters live as if rendered in a folk painting from Shaanxi.
Sup China
https://supchina.com/2019/07/11/broken-wings-jia-pingwas-controversial-novel/
uncompromising
a rural epic spanning six decades - (note: this refers to Laosheng)
Jia broke new ground with Broken Wings
The problem with translating Jia Pingwa lies in his mixing of high and low - classical allusions are set down beside scatological dialect expressions, and poetry flows alongside earthy descriptions of village life
Writer's Digest
https://www.writersdigest.com/write-better-fiction/nicky-harman-on-translation-and-violence
Leeds Centre for New Chinese Writing - there are two reviews here, one positive & one negativehttps://writingchinese.leeds.ac.uk/book-reviews/broken-wings-by-jia-pingwa/
Jia Pingwa writes with sensitivity whilst, nonetheless, not shying away from confronting the reader with bleak realities.
Reading Broken Wings, I empathised with characters that I would usually have dismissed as being unworthy of sympathy. Without warning, my moral compass seemed to have been compromised. My blind confidence of knowing basic rights and wrongs was shown to be embarrassingly naive.
a reflection of life in China today
