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  • Published: 15 August 2016
  • ISBN: 9780143782902
  • Imprint: Penguin eBooks
  • Format: EBook
  • Pages: 565

Life and Death Are Wearing Me Out

China Library



In this multifaceted tour de force, Mo Yan flexes his skills both as an astute observer of society and history and as a leading practitioner of experimental and imaginative fiction.

In this multifaceted tour de force, Mo Yan flexes his skills both as an astute observer of society and history and as a leading practitioner of experimental and imaginative fiction.

Ximen Nao, a wealthy landowner, loses his farm and his life as angry villagers redistribute the land after the establishment of the People's Republic of China. In Lord Yama's underworld, Ximen refuses to admit any wrongdoing even under torture. Exasperated, Yama returns him to his farm as a donkey, the first of many reincarnations. Over the next five decades, Ximen lives through the absurdities and excesses of Chinese history as a donkey, ox, pig, dog, monkey and finally an infant with an unusually large head.

  • Published: 15 August 2016
  • ISBN: 9780143782902
  • Imprint: Penguin eBooks
  • Format: EBook
  • Pages: 565

About the author

Mo Yan

Mo Yan was born in 1955 in Gaomi County in Shandong province, China. He is the author of various novellas and short stories and numerous novels including Red Sorghum, The Republic of Wine, Big Breasts and Wide Hips, Life and Death Are Wearing Me Out and The Garlic Ballads. In 2012 he was awarded the Nobel Prize for Literature.

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