The Last Quarter of the Moon

Zijian has an extraordinary gift for storytelling and her steely narrator is a true heroine, surviving war and encroaching modernity. Simply magnificent

Kate Saunders, Times

An atmospheric modern folk-tale, the saga of the Evenki clan of Inner Mongolia – nomadic reindeer herders whose traditional life alongside the Argun river endured unchanged for centuries... This is a fitting tribute to the Evenki by a writer of rare talent

Financial Times

Chi Zijian's beautifully realised novel offers a detailed portrait of a way of life hard to imagine today…It was surely no easy task to make this ancient, wise narrator sound convincing in English. Bruce Humes's skilful translation is pitch-perfect

Independent

This is a beautifully simple book offering a detailed yet unromantic picture ... The setting is spectacularly rendered and this idyllic corner of China is as prominent as any other character in the book

We Love This Book

Masterfully told, with simplicity and empathy, in a direct and credible voice that not only feels unlike a translation, but unlike a fiction at all

Independent on Sunday

One of the most extraordinary novels you are likely to read for quite some time...touching, absolutely fascinating.

Asian Review of Books

When you open this book you can feel the grandmother’s breath and hear the hidden voices of the women of the Evenki tribe of northeast China – a moving story told by a great Chinese writer

Xinran, author of The Good Women of China

Enthrallingly evoked

Jane Housham, Guardian

[A] remarkable story…. Zijian’s language is infused with natural images of her native China

Freya McClements, Irish Times