The garlic ballads : a novel
(Book)

"This work was originally published in China in different form by Writers Publishing House, Beijing, 1988."--T.p. verso. This translation originally published: New York : Random House, 1995.

Banned in China after the Tiananmen Square massacre, this epic novel by one of China's leading writers portrays a people driven to smash the rigid confines of their ancient traditions. The farmers of Paradise County have been leading a hardscrabble life unchanged for generations. The Communist government encourages them to plant garlic, but selling the crop is not as easy as they believed. Warehouse fill up, taxes skyrocket, and government officials maltreat those who have traveled for days to sell their harvest. When a surplus on the garlic market ensues, the farmers watch in horror as their crops wither and rot in the fields. Families are destroyed by the random imprisonment of young and old for alleged crimes against the state. Prisoners languish in horrifying conditions in their cells. Enraged, the farmers storm the headquarters of corrupt Communist officials in chaos and destruction. His voice is the conscience of the land, and his fate will mirror the country's. Against this turmoil unfold three tales of love, loyalty, and vengeance: between man and woman, father and child, friend and friend. The Garlic Ballads is a powerful vision of life under the heel of an inflexible and uncaring government. It is also a delicate story of love and the struggle to maintain that love in the face of overwhelming obstacles.