The Day the Sun Died

Posted on 07 August 2017 by Yan Lianke

The reality of life in China today contrasts with the sunny optimism of the Chinese dream in this gripping, gruesome dystopia from one of the masters of modern Chinese literature Jung Chang One dusk in early June, in a town deep in the Balou mountains, fourteen year old Li Niannian notices that something strange is going on As the residents would usually be settling down for the night, instead they start appearing in the streets and fields There are people everywhere.Li Niannian watches, mystified But then he realises the people are dreamwalking, carrying on with their daily business as if the sun hadn t already gone down And before too long, asandpeople succumb, in the black of night all hell breaks loose.Set over the course of one night, The Day the Sun Died pits chaos and darkness against the sunny optimism of the Chinese dream promoted by President Xi Jinping We are thrown into the middle of an increasingly strange and troubling waking nightmare as Li Niannian and his father struggle to save the town, and persuade the beneficent sun to rise again.Praise for Yan Lianke s books Nothing short of a masterpiece Guardian A hyper real tour de force, a blistering condemnation of political corruption and excess Financial Times Mordant satire from a brave fabulist Daily MailExuberant and imaginative Sunday TimesI can think of few better novelists than Yan, with his superlative gifts for storytelling and penetrating eye for truth New York Times Book Review Best Read Kindle ePUB The Day the Sun Died author Yan Lianke – kino-fada.fr Reading this novel is exactly like listening to someone tell you their dream, where it takes them about four hours to tell you the whole thing, and it is a well known fact that listening to someone tell you about their dream is never quite as interesting dreaming it yourself.In 2012, President Xi Jinping first talked about the Chinese Dream , a concept that aims to translate the American Dream into Chinese cultural concepts and, by that, is meant to capture a specifically Chinese version of the strife for success, prosperity and happiness Author Yan Lianke knows that the line between a dream and a nightmare can be a thin one, and that dreams might give free reign to our subconscious urges and fears The Day the Sun Died is his novel about the Chinese dream, and, In 2012, President Xi Jinping first talked about the Chinese Dream , a concept that aims to translate the American Dream into Chinese cultural concepts and, by that, is meant to capture a specifically Chinese version of the strife for success, prosperity and happiness Author Yan Lianke knows that the line between a dream and a nightmare can be a thin one, and that dreams might give free reign to our subconscious urges and fears The Day the Sun Died is his novel about the Chinese dream, and, as many of Yan Lianke s satirical and critical works, the book has not been published in Mainland China Our protagonist is 14 year old Li Niannian who lives in Gaotian Village which actually exists and whose parents own a shop that sells items for funeral rituals His uncle has become rich as the owner of the local crematorium the party has forbidden to bury the dead in order to save space, so all bodies must be crem...Yan s latest novel to be translated into English is a poetic nightmare called The Day the Sun Died It s the creepiest book I ve read in years a social comedy that bleeds like a zombie apocalypse.The story takes place during a deadly summer night in a small village in central China Our narrator is a 14 year old boy named Li Niannian, whose parents own the New World funerary shop that sold everything dead people might need Li confesses that almost everyone refers to him as an idiot, but th Yan s latest novel to be translated into English is a poetic nightmare called The Day the Sun Died It s the creepiest book I ve read in years a social comedy that bleeds like a zombie apocalypse.The story takes place during a deadly summer night in a small village in central China Our narrator is a 14 year old boy named Li Niannian, whose parents own the New World funerary shop that sold everything dead people might need Li confesses that almost everyone refers to him as an idiot, but that s not fair He may be naive and guileless, but he s no idiot In fact, he s telling this story himself only because his neighbor, the novelist Yan Lianke, is worn out and hopeless Li tells us he s read all of Yan s books, but the experience is like asking my eyes to eat rotten fruit the first of many self deprecating jokes Until Yan can recover his inspiration, Li will have to ...The thing I love the most about this book is the title It is exactly as suggestive and thought provoking as the rest of the book.This isn t exactly a page turner Actually, the descriptive parts read almost like non fiction or research paper Yan Lianke really does transport you to an authentic China, one of the best Chinese writers I have read.I think this book will make many interested into the Asian culture and the story provides amazing entertainment while forcing you to ask questions you p The thing I love the most about this book is the title It is exactly as suggestive and thought provoking as the rest of the book.This isn t exactly a page turner Actually, the descriptive parts read almost like non fiction or research paper Yan Lianke really does transport you to an authentic China, one of the best Chinese writers I have read.I think this book will make many inter...via my blog Astonished, I walked out of his room, and saw him heading toward the lake, like a ghost heading toward the grave I read somewhere this book has political meaning, and it can certainly be seen in the sleepwalking villagers, not much different from their hard working daily lives Going about their business, laboring , as if on automatic, is this the Chinese dream Are they ready to embrace the modern world, should they, do they even want to Tee via my blog Astonished, I walked out of his room, and saw him heading toward the lake, like a ghost heading toward the grave I read somewhere this book has political meaning, and it can certainly be seen in the sleepwalking villagers, not much different from their hard working daily lives Going about their business, laboring , as if on automatic, is this the Chinese dream Are they ready to embrace the modern world, should they, do they even want to Teenager Li Niannian and his parents run the New World funerary shop, his parents creating Chinese paper offerings for the dead, supplying the deceased with everything they might need in the afterlife Once, his father secretly aided his uncle by giving news when someone in the village die...It s an imaginative satire of modern China In a rural setting, and over the course of one night, people start dreamwalking carrying out activities that they were thinking about or doing before they went to sleep Slowly the night becomeschaotic and violent Lin is a 14 year old boy and his parents try to stem the tied and work to making the sun come up again and the night to end.My main criticism of this interesting interpretation of the dangers of modernisation, the great dream of rene It s an imaginative satire of modern China In a rural setting, and over the course of one night, people start dreamwalking carrying out activities that they were thinking about or doing before they went to sleep Slowly the night becomeschaotic and violent Lin is a 14 year old boy and his parents try to stem the tied and work to making the sun come up again and the night to end.My main criticism of this interesting interpretation of the dangers of modernisation, the great dream of renewal, is it seemed t...I really liked the premise of this book, but reading it felt like a chore Particularly annoying is the writer s tendency to repeat sentences or phrases For example, In front of the shop, everyone was nervous as though the air were too thin Out in the streets, everyone was nervous as though the air were too thin Or certain dialogue is always said twice, one after the other If this is supposed to be a literary style, I am just not digging it Perhaps other people foundmerit in this bo I really liked the premise of this book, but reading it felt like a chore Particularly annoying is the writer s tendency to repeat sentences or phrases For example, In front of the shop, everyone was nervous as though the air were too thin Out in the streets, everyone was nervous as though the air were too thin Or certain dialogue is always said twice, one after the other If this is supposed to be a literary style, I a...A powerful, captivating work of artSouth China Morning PostThis exuberant but sinister fable confirms its author as one of China s most audacious and enigmatic novelistsEconomistI cannot recall another work of fiction that was so difficult to read Many times I wanted to give up, but did not because I was pretty sure this author was doing something important.By difficult, I mean the telling is dreamlike and muddled, and very repetitive A lot of what happens is bizarre and even repellent especially the business about extracting corpse oil from dead bodies before cremating them, and then storing unimaginably vast quantities of the stuff in barrels countless columns o I cannot recall another work of fiction that was so difficult to read Many times I wanted to give up, but did not because I was pretty sure this author was doing something important.By difficult, I mean the telling is dreamlike and muddled, and very repetitive A lot of what happens is bizarre and even repellent especially the business about extracting corpse oil from dead bodies before cremating them, and then storing unimaginably vast quantities of the stuff in barrels countless columns of death , potentially for use as an industrial lubricant.On the other hand, I understood this to be a c...A surreal nightmare disguising social commentary I believe this novel lost a bit in translation The translation may have been accurate, but repetitions of phrases and unvaried word choices reduced my enjoyment of the novel.

English
07 August 2017

Yan Lianke