This book provides the most comprehensive and authoritative representation in English of the remarkable Shen Congwen canon, ranging from the polished stories that made him a serious contender for the Nobel literary prize in the 1980s to lesser known, extravagant experimental pieces.

Jeffrey C. Kinkley is professor emeritus of Chinese history at St. John's University. He is known for his translations of the works of Shen Congwen and is the author of Chinese Justice, the Fiction: Law and Literature in Modern China; Corruption and Realism in Late Socialist China: The Return of the Political Novel; and Visions of Dystopia in China's New Historical Novels.