This is life

Author's name: Mai Jia

A ten-year-old boy tells us, in the first person, stories from his birth village, which he was forced to leave when he turned sixteen, then returned to after many years abroad. The novel is interspersed with numerous characters and events spanning nearly a century. The events revolve around a friend of this boy's father, an eccentric, controversial character. Sometimes others describe him as a warrior hero, sometimes as a traitorous spy. His life is full of stories, contradictions, secrets, successes, setbacks, calm, and fluctuations. Sometimes we see him endowed with strength and courage, and other times his weakness and impotence are revealed to us. He is like a mythical character who permeates the events of the entire novel, and whose experiences are intertwined with the rest of the characters, painting us a complex and rich picture of the life of that character, and opening up

We have a window into that turbulent era of distant Chinese history.

This novel is not only a literary work, but also a life philosophy that depicts life as a changing sea: sometimes calm, sometimes turbulent, and in the end, we discover how to face setbacks, endure suffering, accept consequences, and search for beauty in the midst of ugliness.