Hard Like Water

"Yan is one of those rare geniuses who finds in the peculiar absurdities of his own culture the absurdities that infect all cultures." —The Washington Post

From the Kafka Prize winner and two-time Booker Prize finalist, this is a gripping and bitingly satirical story of ambition and betrayal, following two young communist revolutionaries whose forbidden love sets them apart from their traditionally minded village as the Cultural Revolution sweeps China.

Gao Aijun is a son of the soil ...