City of Fiction

"Engrossing…. a terrifically entertaining novel."--Irish Times

In the early 20th century, China is a land undergoing a momentous social and cultural shift, with a thousand-year-old empire crumbling and the nation on the brink of modernity. Against this backdrop, a quiet man from the North embarks on a perilous journey to a Southern city in the grip of a savage snowstorm. He carries with him a newborn baby: he is looking for the child's mother and a city that isn't there.

This is a story of two people: a man who finds unexpected success after having journeyed to the hometown of the woman who abandoned him; and the woman he is searching for, who mysteriously disappeared to embark on her own eventful journey. This is a story about vanished crafts and ancient customs, about violence, love, and friendship. Above all, it's a story about change and about storytelling itself, full of vivid characters and surprising twists—an epic tale, as inexorable as time itself and as gripping as a classic adventure story.



"A story of love and sacrifice.... a stark reflection of a galvanising time."



"Once an edgy experimentalist, Yu Hua is now one of China's best-selling writers."



"Engrossing…. a terrifically entertaining novel."



"City of Fiction  does have the capacity to delight. If  City of Fiction  isn't lifelike in the way of realist novels, it isn't unlike life — actual life — in all its uneven, ungainly weirdness."



"Wencheng (City of Fiction) is not just a city where the story happens, but a space in which the readers can let their imaginations roam free."