{"product_id":"a-dictionary-of-maqiao","title":"A Dictionary of Maqiao","description":"From the daring imagination of one of China's greatest living novelists comes a work of startling power and originality-the story of a young man \"displaced\" to a small village in rural China during the 1960s. Told in the format of a dictionary, with a series of vignettes disguised as entries, \u003ci\u003eA Dictionary of Maqiao\u003c\/i\u003e is a novel of bold invention-and a fascinating, comic, deeply moving journey through the dark heart of the Cultural Revolution.\u003cbr\u003eEntries trace the wisdom and absurdities of Maqiao: the petty squabbles, family grudges, poverty, infidelities, fantasies, lunatics, bullies, superstitions, and especially the odd logic in their use of language-where the word for \"beginning\" is the same as the word for \"end\"; \"little big brother\" means older sister; to be \"scientific\" means to be lazy; and \"streetsickness\" is a disease afflicting villagers visiting urban areas. Filled with colorful characters-from a weeping ox to a man so poisonous that snakes die when they bite him-\u003ci\u003eA Dictionary of Maqiao\u003c\/i\u003e is both an important work of Chinese literature and a probing inquiry into the extraordinary power of language.","brand":"Dial Press","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":48855999054029,"sku":"9780385339353","price":23.0,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0557\/1529\/9533\/files\/imageloader_43587e78-cdc8-4d09-9eea-790dcaa77ded.jpg?v=1794509750","url":"https:\/\/booksatmidnight.com\/products\/a-dictionary-of-maqiao","provider":"Books At Midnight","version":"1.0","type":"link"}