Thursday Night Book Club: Balzac and the Little Chinese Seamstress

Balzac and the Little Chinese Seamstress is about two teenage boys during the Chinese Cultural Revolution, Luo, described as having "a genius for storytelling", and the unnamed narrator, "a fine musician." They are assigned tore-education through labor and are sent to a mountain called "Phoenix of the Sky" near Tibet to work in the coal mines and with the rice crop, because their doctor parents have been declared enemies of the state by the government. The two boys fall in love with the Little Seamstress, the daughter of the local tailor and "the region's reigning beauty". Residents of the small farming village are delighted by the stories the two teenagers retell from classic literature and movies that they have seen. They are even excused from work for a few days to see The Flower Girl at a nearby town and later retell the story to the townspeople, through a process known as "oral cinema."

This book is a autobiographical novel written by Dai Sijie. If you need this book in audio form or in Large Print please let a staff member know.