This is a sweeping story of political upheaval and forbidden romance set in early twentieth-century China.
One hundred years old and confined to a nursing home, Ears looks back on his life. His story begins when he is sixteen and a slave in the corrupt Cao household. The family's wayward son, Guanghan, returns to China from France with a dashing French engineer and plans to establish a match factory.
He takes little interest in the young bride who his parents have arranged for him to marry. As Guanghan comes into conflict with the men of the Qing empire, his beautiful young wife, who is adored by Ears, embarks on a disastrous affair with the Frenchman. In disgrace, she asks Ears and her servant girl to escape with her on a barge down the Green River.
This is a story about unrequited love, the relationship between master and servant and what happens when East and West collide. It is a heroic, tragic and stunningly accomplished novel by the foremost voice in contemporary Chinese literature.
