Why read Frog?

Book cover of Frog

Book description

A NEW YORK TIMES TOP BOOK OF THE YEAR
WASHINGTON POST NOTABLE BOOK

From the Nobel-prize winning author of Red Sorghum and one China's most revered writers, a novel exploring the One-Child Policy

Before the Cultural Revolution, Gugu, narrator Tadpole's feisty aunt, is a respected midwife in her rural…

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Literary fiction

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Why read it?

1 author picked Frog as one of their favorite books. Why do they recommend it?

Yang Huang

Author

As a writer who works under China’s censorship, Mo Yan spins literary gold in his novel Frog by blending high farce with social commentary. Narrator Tadpole’s aunt Gugu, a feisty woman with extraordinary gifts, evolves from a legendary midwife to a demonic one-child policy enforcer, then becomes an incorrigible go-between for surrogate and intentional parents. Readers see how China and rural Gaomi townships have changed, almost beyond description, from Maoist times to the current hyper-capitalistic phase. Much of the story is funny, brutal, yet firmly grounded, as people endure, and many perish during a half-century of social and political…

From Yang's list on The best books on China’s one-child policy and Tiananmen Square protests.