Happy Day! Our very own Bruce Humes has been selected by Harvill Secker to translate Right Bank of the Argun, by Chi Zijian.
Congratulations, and we look forward to reading it! In the meantime, read an excerpt here.
By Eric Abrahamsen, April 3, 2:40a.m.
Right Bank of the Argun (额尔古纳河右岸) by Chi Zijian (迟子建) is a first-person narrative told from the point of view of an aging Evenki woman in the last years of the 20th century. She chooses to stay behind when her tribe abandons the forested mountains of Northeast China for "civilized" life among town dwellers, where their beloved reindeer will be cooped up like cattle. For details of the real-life relocation, see Reindeer Blog.
Right Bank of the Argun won the prestigious Mao Dun Literature Prize in 2008. To introduce this piece of "fictionalized anthropology," I have translated an excerpt from the author's Afterword. Intriguingly, Chi Zijian was inspired to write this novel partly based on events in her youth (she lived near mountains inhabited by the Oroqen, who are closely related to the Evenki), as well as encounters with Australian aborigines and. . .Irish pub-goers.
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By Bruce Humes, October 18, 6:54p.m.