ROUGE STREET Three Novellas

Brian Nishii gives these three novellas a vivid, unforgettable performance. His sense of timing and his pace work well, and he shifts his tone from character to character subtly but intelligently. Honoring the spare prose, Nishii illuminates the harsh existences of the characters. Job loss, beatings, and other violence take place, but there's wit and whimsy, too. Family competition over status provides humor. Shuang Xuetao is among China's most honored young writers; ROUGE STREET is his first work to be translated into English. He captures industrial Shenyang, the part of China that was left behind after the economic restructuring. His prose is grounded in the quotidian, yet he can remind the listener of Borges or Kafka. This audiobook is immersive and haunting. A.D.M. Winner of AudioFile Earphones Award © AudioFile 2022, Portland, Maine [Published: JUNE 2022]