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Dai Sijie
Photo Credit: Jacques Sassier


Born in China in 1954, Dai Sijie is a filmmaker who was himself 're-educated' between 1971 and 1974, and left China in 1984 for France, where he has lived and worked ever since. His first novel, Balzac and the Little Chinese Seamstress, was an overnight sensation when it appeared in France in 2000. It became an immediate bestseller and won five prizes. It is now published in over thirty-five countries. His film of the book was chosen to open the Cannes Film Festival in 2002. His second novel, Mr Muo's Travelling Couch, became a bestseller in its first French edition.

Books by Dai Sijie

Once on a Moonless Night

Comprising ancient texts and fables, stories within stories, and a young man's desperate search for his father's legacy, this beguiling tale, by the bestselling author of Balzac and the Little Chinese Seamstress, has the enigmatic mystery of Eco's The Name of the Rose, with the tenderness of the film, Lost in Translation.

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Mr Muo's Travelling Couch

Wonderful second novel from the author of the best-selling Balzac and the Little Chinese Seamstress.

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Balzac and the Little Chinese Seamstress

Here is one of those rare novels, so captivatingly original, so absurdly funny, surprising and moving, that it crosses all boundaries.

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