New Releases by Ha Jin

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Ha Jin’s masterful new novel casts a searchlight into a forgotten corner of modern history, the experience of Chinese soldiers held in U.S. POW camps during the Korean War. In 1951 Yu Yuan, a scholarly and self-effacing clerical officer in Mao’s “volunteer” army, is taken prisoner south of the 38th Parallel. Because he speaks English, he soon becomes an intermediary between his compatriots and their American captors.With Yuan as guide, we are ushered into the secret world behind the barbed wire, a world where kindness alternates with blinding cruelty and one has infinitely more to fear from one’s fellow prisoners than from the guards. Vivid in its historical detail, profound in its imaginative empathy, War Trash is Ha Jin’s most ambitious book to date.

Una novel.la que captura les sorpreses de la vida quotidiana a la Xina.

La Chine populaire, peu après la mort de Mao... Bin et sa jolie femme Meilan rêvent de quitter la pièce unique où ils s''entassent avec leur fille de deux ans, pour emménager au radieux Parc des Travailleurs nouvellement construit sur la commune. Mais pour cela il faudrait entretenir de bons rapports avec les dirigeants. Or, Bin, ajusteur à l''usine d''engrais, mais calligraphe et peintre amateur de talent, a un caractère ombrageux et frondeur. Les dénis de justice et abus de pouvoir des chefaillons lui inspirent des caricatures vengeresses qu''il envoie aux journaux et qui surgissent sur les panneaux d''affichage de l''usine. Le litige s''envenime, porté de plus en plus en haut lieu, jusqu''à Pékin. Superbement rythmé, cocasse, truculent parfois, ce roman à l''ironie brechtienne est aussi une étude psychologique subtile qui laisse aux personnages et aux situations toute leur ambiguïté, tandis que des évocations elliptiques et impromptues de la nature aux quatre saisons lui accordent la grâce suggestive des estampes chinoises.

Perto de seu exame de admissão ao doutorado em literatura na Universidade de Pequim, o jovem Jian Wan é escalado pelo Partido Comunista para acompanhar o professor Yang, seu orientador, durante o período de recuperação depois de um derrame. No leito do hospital, o professor delira e faz revelações que, aos olhos de Jian - futuro genro e aluno predileto do mestre -, compõem um retrato da situação política e cultural da China contemporânea. Aos poucos, a trama ultrapassa o delírio e vai se conectando à realidade. AS alucinações do professor rompem a censura imposta pelo regime, revelando o sentido profundo do que acontece na sociedade chinesa pós-Revolução Cultural, em que os indivíduos têm sua vida privada e pública devassadas pelo Estado. Nascidas de meditações e recordações emocionadas, as falas do professor mostram para Jian uma nova faceta da vida. NEste romance desconcertante, Ha Jin expõe as engrenagens da ditadura chinesa, mas também aponta um possível escape para os que vivem sob as amarras do totalitarismo.

Een professor krijgt een beroerte, waarna zijn student en aanstaande schoonzoon plichtsgetrouw de verzorging op zich neemt.

Médecin militaire à l''hôpital de Muji en Mandchourie, Lin Kong est tiraillé entre deux femmes incarnant deux mondes diamétralement opposés : Shuyu, l''épouse que ses parents lui ont choisie jadis, une humble paysanne aux pieds bandés qui tient sa maison et élève leur fille dans son village natal, et Manna Wu, une jeune collègue infirmière éduquée et moderne qui lui inspire un amour passionnel. Mais il doit réprimer les élans de son cœur, puisque le respect des traditions lui impose de préserver son mariage sans amour et qu''un adultère découvert par les cadres du Parti briserait sa carrière. En conscience, il décide finalement d''aller demander le divorce à son épouse à l''occasion de sa permission estivale. Pendant dix-sept longues années, à chaque retour au village, Lin Kong renouvellera en vain sa demande... Avec pour toile de fond, de 1966 à 1983, une Chine attachée à ses traditions séculaires autant qu''opprimée par la bureaucratie communiste, La Longue Attente explore par touches délicates les affres des amours contrariées face à l''impitoyable marche du temps.

Kültürel engelleri aşan basit bir aşk öyküsü.

Winner of the PEN/Faulkner Award • National Book Award Winner • Pulitzer Prize Finalist • A New York Times Notable Book From the widely acclaimed author—a rich and atmospheric novel about a man living in two worlds, struggling with the conflicting claims of two utterly different women. The demands of human longing contend with the weight of centuries of custom in acclaimed author Ha Jin’s Waiting, a novel of unexpected richness and universal resonance. Every summer Lin Kong, a doctor in the Chinese Army, returns to his village to end his loveless arranged marriage with the humble and touchingly loyal Shuyu. But each time Lin must return to the city to tell Manna Wu, the educated, modern nurse he loves, that they will have to postpone their engagement once again. Caught between the conflicting claims of these two utterly different women and trapped by a culture in which adultery can ruin lives and careers, Lin has been waiting for eighteen years. This year, he promises will be different. "Ha Jin profoundly understands the conflict between the individual and society, between the timeless universality of the human heart and constantly shifting politics of the moment. With wisdom, restraint, and empathy for all his characters, he vividly reveals the complexities and subtleties of a world and a people we desperately need to know."—Judges'' Citation, National Book Award

From the remarkable Ha Jin, winner of the National Book Award for his celebrated novel Waiting, a collection of comical and deeply moving tales of contemporary China that are as warm and human as they are surprising, disturbing, and delightful. In the title story, the head of security at a factory is shocked, first when the hansomest worker on the floor proposes marriage to his homely adopted daughter, and again when his new son-in-law is arrested for the "crime" of homosexuality. In "After Cowboy Chicken Came to Town," the workers at an American-style fast food franchise receive a hilarious crash course in marketing, deep frying, and that frustrating capitalist dictum, "the customer is always right."Ha Jin has triumphed again with his unforgettable storytelling in The Bridegroom.

Poetry. Asian American Studies. New poems by the author of Waiting, winner of the National Book Award. Ha Jin''s writing has been called luminous and eloquent by The New York Times Book Review, extraordinary by the Chicago Sun-Times and achingly beautiful by the Los Angeles Times. Asianweek calls him a master of lyric.

Lin Kong é um médico na China da década de 1960. TOdo ano ele volta à aldeia de Ganso para tentar se divorciar da mulher, Shuyu, e assim ficar disponível para se casar com Manna Wu, jovem enfermeira do hospital onde trabalha. DUrante dezoito anos, Lin Kong tenta em vão: na última hora, sua mulher sempre desiste de lhe conceder a separação. DUrante dezoito anos, ele e Manna Wu mantêm um relacionamento sem contato corporal - e é durante essa espera que transcorre a maior parte do romance. LEal ao extremo, feia, pés atados, Shuyu - com quem o médico se casou por arranjo entre famílias - encarna a China rural, arcaica; arrasta consigo um tipo de vida tacanha de que Lin Kong quer se livrar. MAnna Wu, por sua vez, representa a China urbana e a possibilidade (que ele julgava descartada) de conhecer o amor.O Medo da solidão, as armadilhas da honestidade, a fragilidade dos vínculos familiares, a força da internalização das normas sociais e a inexistência de privacidade numa sociedade vigiada são temas explorados com rara sensibilidade por Ha Jin - um chinês que, escrevendo em inglês, obteve uma das honrarias literárias mais prestigiosas dos Estados Unidos: o National Book Award.

National Book Award-winner Ha Jin''s arresting debut novel , In the Pond, is a darkly funny portrait of an amateur calligrapher who wields his delicate artist''s brush as a weapon against the powerful party bureaucrats who rule his provincial Chinese town. Shao Bin is a downtrodden worker at the Harvest Fertilizer Plant by day and an aspiring artist by night. Passed over on the list to receive a decent apartment for his young family, while those in favor with the party''s leaders are selected ahead of him, Shao Bin chafes at his powerlessness. When he attempts to expose his corrupt superiors by circulating satirical cartoons, he provokes an escalating series of merciless counterattacks that send ripples beyond his small community. Artfully crafted and suffused with earthy wit, In the Pond is a moving tale about humble lives caught up in larger social forces.