Book summary

A Ph.D. candidate at a Chinese university tends the bedside of one of his professors, who is also his girlfriend's father and who in his illness and delirium rants about his past: his counterrevolutionary activities, his adulterous affairs, his dissatisfaction with his scholarly career. Inspired by the old man, the student gives up his own ambitions--and becomes one of the protestors in Tiananmen Square. A New York Times Notable Book for 2002.

Media reviews

"At its best, this has some of the pacing and texture of a skillfully constructed mystery....But the payoff is a letdown: it feels more like a general statement about China's recent history than the result of its characters' fateful interactions. Not one of Ha Jin's better efforts. Still, readers who've admired his later fiction won't want to miss it."