A hot 60s band, for exactly four years the vagrants, one of new york citys most popular bands in the 1960s, recorded only 30 minutes worth of music. She received an mfa from iowa writers workshop and an mfa in creative nonfiction writing from the university of iowa. Yiyun li on the lifechanging quality of literature read it. Everyday low prices on a huge range of new releases and classic fiction. Li author talia carner talks about her book the third daughter.
A native of beijing and a graduate of the iowa writers workshop, she is the recipient of a macarthur foundation fellowship, the frank oconnor international short story award, the hemingway foundationpen award, the. Yiyun li is the author of four works of fictionkinder than solitude, a thousand years of good prayers, the vagrants, and gold boy, emerald girland the memoir dear friend, from my life i write to you in your life. Shortlisted for the 2011 international impac dublin literary awardmorning dawns on the provincial city of muddy river. The first collection of short stories by yiyun li has just been translated into french 1. Celeste ng, ann patchett, min jin lee and others on the books that. Author yiyun li season 2014 episode 9 dialogue pbs. The vagrants by yiyun li and jackie chung audiobook. Yiyun li grew up in beijing, china and moved to the united states in 1996. Thriftbooks sells millions of used books at the lowest everyday prices. In a city called muddy river, in the bledgray, hysterical paranoia of china postmao, postgang of four 197879, lives a loosely connected ensemble.
Author yiyun lis complete list of books and series in order, with the latest releases, covers, descriptions and availability. All the books below are recommended as readalikes for yiyun li but some maybe more relevant to you than others depending on which books by the author you have read and enjoyed. Dear friend, from my life i write to you in your life by yiyun li. Yiyun li is the author of a thousand years of good prayers and the vagrants. Our actions influence the people around us and spread in wider and wider circles.
Authors are just like the rest of us they like to soothe their anxieties by losing themselves in the pages of a beloved book. Author yiyun li s complete list of books and series in order, with the latest releases, covers, descriptions and availability. Yiyun li has 31 books on goodreads with 54552 ratings. Though suffering, lis characters nevertheless struggle to. Ann patchett this is a book of loss and pain and fear that manages to include such unexpected tenderness and grace notes that, just as one can bear it. I read the vagrants for a class on womens issues as seen through literature and film. Her memoir, dear friend, from my life i write to you in your life, was published in 2017. Discover book depositorys huge selection of yiyun li books online.
Read the vagrants, by yiyun li online on bookmate the novel from the guardian first book awardwinning chinese writer acclaimed by michel faber as having the talent, the vision and the respect fo. Spurred on by rumours that greater freedom in china is imminent, a peaceful rebellion. A native of beijing and a graduate of the iowa writers workshop, she is the recipient of many awards, including a penhemingway award and a macarthur foundation. Yiyun li has written a book that is as important politically as it is artistically. Yiyun li is the author of six works of fictionmust i go, where reasons end, kinder than solitude, a thousand years of good prayers, the vagrants, and gold boy, emerald girland the memoir dear friend, from my life i write to you more about yiyun li. Lis debut short story collection, a thousand years of good prayers, won the frank oconnor international short story award and penhemingway award. A native of beijing and a graduate of the iowa writers workshop, she is the recipient of many awards. A native of beijing and a graduate of the iowa writers workshop, she is the recipient of the frank oconnor international short story award, the hemingway foundationpen award, the whiting writers award, and the guardian first book award. Yiyun li books list of books by author yiyun li thriftbooks. Chineseamerican fiction writer yiyun li is the author of the vagrants, kinder than solitude, and gold boy, emerald girl. Her novels include the vagrants and kinder than solitude. Yiyun li ponders the perplexities of loneliness in kinder than solitude. The vagrants a novel epub yiyun li achat ebook fnac. As part of the exhibition, portraits and interviews with writers and creative thinkers are being published across a network of university and international literary magazines.
Although this is delia owens first novel, she long ago distinguished. A thousand years of good prayers, 2005 takes place across a brief stretch of days in muddy river, a poor town hundreds of miles from beijing. Yiyun li is the winner of the prestigious hemingway foundationpen award. In 1991 li reported to xinyang to complete one year of. The vagrants while beautifully well written, is a very difficult read. Season 2014 episode 9 28m 52s marcia franklin talks with author yiyun li about her works, including her recent novel, kinder than solitude. Yiyun li is the author of six works of fictionmust i go, where reasons end, kinder than solitude, a thousand years of good prayers, the vagrants, and gold boy, emerald girland the memoir dear friend, from my life i write to you in your life. Regardless, with so many predecessor books, one might well wonder whether there were any more stories left to tell set in those specific years. Yiyun li answers that proposition in the vagrants brilliantly, with a resounding yes. A profound mystery is at the heart of this magnificent new novel by yiyun li, one of americas best young novelists newsweek and the celebrated author of the vagrants, winner of the hemingway foundationpen award. We personally assess every book s quality and offer rare, outofprint treasures. From an event featuring yiyun li at hunter college in new york city on april. Where reasons end imagines a dialogue between a mother and her teenage son after he has been lost to suicide.
Buy the vagrants by li, yiyun, bell, stewart, brockett, keith from amazons fiction books store. Had i not needed to read it in order to participate in class discussion, i probably would have stopped reading it at some point. Like many unpublished authors, lee was unsure of her talents. A mother loses a son to suicide, but their dialogue. Book sales surge as selfisolating readers buy bucket list novels. The muchanticipated first novel from the guardian first book awardwinning chinese writer.
The vagrants is an excellent portrait of the stings and missteps of the cultural revolution, and its effects on a series of families and individuals. This book was on the reading list of influences that anthony marra author of the chechen influenced constellation of vital phenomena which marra outlined as influential to his writing. In luminous prose, awardwinning author yiyun li weaves together the lives of unforgettable characters who are forced to make moral choices, and choices for survival, in china in the late 1970s. Yiyun li, author, dear friend, from my life i write to you in your life, kinder than solitude, gold boy, emerald girl, the vagrants, a thousand years of good prayers. Startlingly original and shining with quiet wisdom, this is a luminous account of a life lived with books. Along with her parents and one sister, she lived in an apartment complex built as housing for employees of the department of nuclear industry, where her father worked as a physicist. Her first novel, the vagrants, draws heavily on the art of the short. Li and the crownwearing virus, is written by francesca cavallo, a new york times bestselling author known for.
Many books have been written about peoples lives affected by the cultural revolution in communist china, but yiyun li s portrayals stood out for me. Written over two years while the author battled suicidal. She didnt want to waste her time reading the whole book because it was in english. Though suffering, lis characters nevertheless struggle to maintain hope amid cruel circumstance. Aug 09, 2010 yiyun li reads from her debut novel the vagrants at readings from around the globe. Yiyun li in 1979 muddy river, a provincial chinese city, the gu family struggles to deal with the imminent loss of their daughter, gu shan, about to be executed as a counterrevolutionary, while their. Random house feb 3 2009 contemporary literature by chinese writers and others is filled to overflowing with wonderful works set in the time period of the cultural revolution and then, the more recent tiananmen square era of chinese history, however, it is the period between these two mammoth events which marks the setting for yiyun lis stunning debut novel. She is an editor of the brooklynbased literary magazine a public space. My third choice on my china reading list, is a novel by the chinese author yiyun li, the vagrants.
Eleanor talks with chineseamerican author yiyun li about her 2014 novel kinder than solitude, set in the shadow of the 1989 tiananmen square massacre and inspired by real life events. Nelle harper lee april 28, 1926 february 19, 2016 was an american novelist best known for her 1960 novel to kill a mockingbird. We deliver the joy of reading in 100% recycled packaging with free standard shipping on u. The novelist and short story writer came to the united states from china in 1996 to study immunology, but fell in love. If you are the publisher or author of this book and feel that the. Opening night extravaganza, part of the 2010 pen world voices festival. It won the 1961 pulitzer prize and has become a classic of modern american literature. I had a hunger for so long, and all of a sudden i had all these books, says li, who became a professor of creative writing at princeton in 2017. She is the author of two novels, the vagrants and kinder than solitude, two story collections, a thousand years of good prayers and gold boy, emerald girl, and a book of nonfiction, dear friend, from my life i write to you in your life. Her novel, the vagrants, won the gold medal of california book award for fiction, and was shortlisted for dublin impac award. Signed to the full title page by yiyun li, the author.
I ts 1979, three years after maos death, and gu shan, a counterrevolutionary, is about to be executed. The vagrants by yiyun li 2009, hardcover for sale online. In the provincial town of muddy waters in china, a young woman named gu shan is sentenced to death for her loss of faith in communism. And author yiyun li, with nonprofit quarterly a public space, has. The vagrants, set in 1979 china, is the story of those affected by the execution of a 28yearold counterrevolutionary. Ann patchett, author of run every once in a while a voice and a subject are so perfectly matched that it seems as if this writer must have been born to write this book. Yiyun li, professor of creative writing, reflects on novels that have a special. Her debut collection, a thousand years of good prayers, won the frank oconnor international short story award and guardian first book award. Y iyun lis 2005 debut story collection a thousand years of good prayers earned her comparisons with chekhov and alice munro. Yiyun li grew up in beijing and has lived in american since 1996.
She is the recipient of many awards, including a penhemingway award, a penjean stein book award, a macarthur foundation fellowship, and a windham. Talia carner is a novelist with a mission to write books that not only entertain with a suspenseful plot, but also enlighten and even disturb. She soon moved north to follow her dreams to become a writer. Chinese american writer yiyun li is popular both here at home where she is an editor at the magazine a public space.
She is presently an editor of the brooklynbased literary magazine a public space. The vagrants, the first novel by chineseamerican author yiyun li who lives in oakland and teaches at ucdavis, and whose 2005 debut story collection a thousand years of good prayers, garnered much critical praise is set in 1979 in a provincial chinese town, where a former red guard is being executed as a counterrevolutionary. Dialogue host marcia franklin talks with author yiyun li about her works. Her short stories and novels have won several awards and distinctions, including the penhemingway award and guardian first book award for a thousand years of good prayers, and the 2020 penjean stein book award for where reasons end. Yiyun li is the author of four works of fiction kinder than solitude, a thousand years of good prayers, the vagrants, and gold boy, emerald girl and the memoir dear friend, from my life i write to you in your life. And just after reading a book on harper lee if you know what i mean. Yiyun li is the author of a thousand years of good prayers, the vagrants and gold boy, emerald girl. Dec 05, 2017 february 25, 2017 yiyun lis first book of nonfiction is an unusual memoir one that examines her depression and suicidal thoughts by drifting through her memories and thoughts on literature. Books transformed her life carrying her from a budding career in science to one as a flourishing novelist and eventually helped save her life when she was suffering from suicidal depression. Yiyun li, author of the vagrants, talks about the book and the writing process in general. But the modest setting and short time span belie this rich, expansive novel, which captures the anxieties and brutality of life during the last days of maoism. In the months after his death, li began writing a new novel. Her short stories and novels have won several awards and distinctions, including the penhemingway award and guardian first book award for a thousand years of good prayers. So often i read books by author with a strong political agenda wild swan came to mind.
Mar 08, 2009 the vagrants begins on march 21, 1979 the spring equinox which is this careful writers way of telling us that a long winter of privation and darkness may be giving way, at last. Brilliant and illuminating, this astonishing debut novel by the awardwinning writer yiyun li is set in china in the late 1970s, when beijing was rocked by the democratic wall movement, an anticommunist groundswell designed to move china beyond the dark shadow of the cultural revolution toward a more enlightened and open society. I did not yet know that some people were assigned a fate that left them on the sidelines, listening. So look for the suggested readalikes by title linked on the right. Her new novel, kinder than solitude, was published in february, 2014. Her debut short story collection, a thousand years of good prayers, won the frank oconnor international short story award, the penhemingway award, and the guardian first book award, among other accolades. Yiyun li grew up in beijing and came to the united states in 1996. Yiyun li s the vagrants, published in 2009 by random house established the author as a new and welcome voice in american fiction the story is set during the cultural revolution in china near a. The vagrants, set in 1979 china, is the story of those affected by the execution ofa 28yearold counterrevolutionary. She is the recipient of a 2010 macarthur genius grant and. Lee only published two books, yet she was awarded the presidential medal. Winner 2010 american library association notable books finalist 2011 impac dublin literary award yiyun li is the author of six works of fictionmust i go, where reasons end, kinder than solitude, a thousand years of good prayers, the vagrants, and gold boy, emerald girland the memoir dear friend, from my life i write to you in your life.
Her novel, the vagrants, was shortlisted for dublin impac award. Her story, set in the small town of muddy river, employs what amounts to an ensemble cast. In 1991 li reported to xinyang to complete one year of service in the chinese army before going to college. Author harper lee in her hometown of monroeville, alabama. When yiyun li was a child in beijing, in the late 1970s, she watched political prisoners paraded through the streets and marveled at the elaborate execution notices posted on the walls.
Yiyun li is the author of three novels, where reasons end, the vagrants and kinder than solitude, and two shortstory collections, a thousand years of good prayers and gold boy, emerald girl, as well as the memoir, dear friend, from my life i write to you in your life. This is a captivating book i read at the suggestion of a young staffer on my team a historical novel about the korean. Yiyun li is the author of a thousand years of good prayers, the vagrants, and gold boy, emerald girl. Book sales surge as selfisolating readers stock up on bucket list novels. Amazed by the talent of a writer, totally unknown in france, i even contacted her for a telephone interview. Her books have been translated into more than twenty. We already mentioned it in august 2008 at the time of the release in france of wayne wangs film a thousand years of good prayers, inspired by the short story, title of the collection. Ann patchett a starkly moving portrayal of china in the wake of the cultural revolution, this book weaves together the stories of a vivid group of characters all struggling to find a home in their own country. Feb 14, 2009 y iyun li s 2005 debut story collection a thousand years of good prayers earned her comparisons with chekhov and alice munro. Her debut collection, a thousand years of good prayers, won the frank oconnor international short story award, penhemingway award, guardian first book award, and california book award for first fiction.
274 898 819 439 1055 1367 43 1417 1025 506 838 1318 1428 1267 1217 302 25 1355 3 18 490 1139 832 806 972 689 1068 469 237 923 637 457 1223