This month r/chinesebookclub on reddit is reading 年月日 by 阎连科

[chialtism]

Feel free to join us!

 

https://www.reddit.com/r/chinesebookclub/comments/4mpgrs/this_june_we_are_reading_the_novella_%E5%B9%B4%E6%9C%88%E6%97%A5_by_%E9%98%8E%E8%BF%9E%E7%A7%91/

 

Edit: 

 

年月日 is part of a collection of short stories and novellas written by Yan about a village hit by drought in the early 1900s, leading everyone to leave the village except one old man and his blind dog. The novella is 41.000 characters long.

 

About 阎连科:

Renowned Chinese novelist Yan Lianke was born in an impoverished region of Song County, Henan Province in 1958. His parents, illliterate farmers who lacked the means to send him to university, encouraged him to enlist in the army, where he rose in the ranks to become a propaganda writer. Upon returning to civilian life, Yan embarked on a career as a novelist. Over the last 30 years, he has produced an extensive body of work that ranges from novels, novellas and short fiction to essays and criticism. Although he has had two of his novels banned in China and was, for a period of three years, prohibited from obtaining a passport or travelling abroad, Yan continues to speak honestly about the impact that government censorship - and self-censorship - have had on contemporary Chinese writers.

[roddy]

You're welcome to post these, but could you edit in a bit about the book and author? What's it about, why was it chosen, why's the author worth reading (Yan's an interesting guy, after all...). 

[chialtism]

I guess I can add the information that's in the link, I just didn't bother since it's right there.

[roddy]

We're a community. It's appreciated if you engage us in conversation rather than putting a flyer through the letterbox, I guess. 

[Luxi]

chialtism, do you have a link to a full thread for a month as an example of how the reading club works?  Or perhaps a set instructions explaining schedules, expectations, how to participate - that kind of basic information?

 

Am I the only one who finds Reddit notoriously difficult to navigate? 

[PaulSav]

If you go to their subreddit you can see some of their past discussion threads:

 

https://www.reddit.com/r/chinesebookclub/

 

For example:

 

https://www.reddit.com/r/chinesebookclub/comments/4em8gh/%E4%B8%89%E4%BD%93_chapters_11112_discussion_thread/

[Luxi]

Thank you, that helped. I'm Reddit illiterate.

 

Interesting project. There's a good variety of book choices though not much discussion.