One Man's Bible (chinese)

One Man's Bible is the second novel by Nobel Prize-winning author Gao Xingjian to appear in English. Following on the heels of his highly praised Soul Mountain , this later work is as candid as the first, and written with the same grace and beauty.\

In a Hong Kong hotel room in 1996, Gao Xingjian's lover, Marguerite, stirs up his memories of childhood and early adult life under the shadow of Mao Zedong and the Cultural Revolution. Gao has been living in self-imposed exile in France and has traveled to this Western-influenced Chinese city-state, so close to his homeland, for the staging of one of his plays.

What follows is a fictionalized account of Gao Xingjian's life under the Communist regime. Whether in "beehive" offices in Beijing or in isolated rural towns, daily life is riddled with paranoia and fear, as revolutionaries, counterrevolutionaries, reactionaries, counterreactionaries, and government propaganda turn citizens against one another. It is a place where a single sentence spoken ten years earlier can make one an enemy of the state. Gao evokes the spiritual torture of political and intellectual repression in graphic detail, including the heartbreaking betrayals he suffers in his relationships with women and men alike.

One Man's Bible is a profound meditation on the essence of writing, on exile, on the effects of political oppression on the human spirit, and on how the human spirit can triumph.

***

"Admirable dramatic intensity… valuable for its vivid piecemeal picture of 20th-century China 's culture of revisionist egoism, paranoia and repression."

– Kirkus Reviews

"Unforgettable… One Man's Bible burns with a powerfully individualistic fire of intelligence and depth of feeling."

– New York Times

"A remarkable achievement."

– Christian Science Monitor

"One Man's Bible… has come to claim its place as a powerful narrative… of the Cultural Revolution's insidious, corrosive terror."

– New York Times Book Review

"Captivating… a beautifully stirring account of life in an era of political oppression…[One Man's Bible] is an important book,"

– Fort Worth Star-Telegram

"[Gao] paints a stark, unforgiving picture of the results of Mao's regime and of the Cultural Revolution."

– Denver Post

"If the hallmark of a good novel is its ability to transport the reader, willing or not, into unfamiliar or uncomfortable territory, then this novel is a success."

– Denver Post