by Xiaolu Guo - £8.99 Vintage (2009)
paperback
ISBN 13: 9780099512936 | ISBN 10: 0099512939
Life as a film extra in Beijing might seem hard, but Fenfang won't be defeated. She has travelled 1800 miles to seek her fortune in the city, and has no desire to return to the never-ending sweet potato fields back home.
Determined to live a modern life, Fenfang works as a cleaner in the Young Pioneer's movie theatre, falls in love with unsuitable men and keeps her kitchen cupboard stocked with UFO noodles. As Fenfang might say, 'Heavenly Bastard in the Sky, isn't it about time I got my lucky break?'
"A nihilistic, Generation X-style manifesto... its impudent, hand-on-hip attitude cannot fail to charm."
(New Statesman)
"A breath of the freshest air imaginable. She cuts through the smog of hype and platitude."
(Boyd Tonkin, Independent)
"A pure and bracing blast of universal youth... I loved it. It shines with the utterly blameless, scarily fragile arrogance of youth itself, the absolute certainty that death is better than middle age."
(James Hawes, Daily Telegraph)
(Price & availability last checked: September 2018)
In booklists: Writers by Surname - G, World Fiction - China,
In categories: Fiction, World - Asia,
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