Hard Like Water

A blistering tour de force . . . Carlos Rojas's exceptional translation makes English feel new again. Yan's linguistic daring, and the novel's relentless stream of provocative images and observations, create a sensuous and riveting world . . . a sharp, desperately moving analysis of the logic of ideology

Madeleine Thien, Guardian

A fascinating work . . . Yan's challenge, to his samizdat readers in China and those beyond, is to look in the murky glass of ambition and self-deception and find the face that resembles their own

John Phipps, The Times

A vivid, even lurid, portrait of the vandalistic savagery and hypocrisy of the post-1966 Cultural Revolution . . . Well-served by Carlos Rojas's agile and richly textured translation

Boyd Tonkin, Financial Times

The novel, a parody, sets itself up as a kind of Maoist Anna Karenina . . . At its core, Hard Like Water seeks to make a mockery of claims to political purity. As Hongmei and Aijun arouse each other with propaganda slogans and revolutionary citations, the novel pokes fun at how easily an ideology can be contorted to satisfy individual desires

Jennifer Wilson, New York Times

A piercing satire of Communism and the language of revolutions

Ángel Gurría-Quitana, Financial Times, *Books of the Year*

Yan probes the darkness and absurdity of Chinese society and history with a sexy satirical tale of the Cultural Revolution as wrought in a small village . . . distinctive and punchy. Yan's exuberant and unflinching tragicomedy is undeniably appealing

Publishers Weekly

Surreal and amusing, biting and fun

Caroline Overington, The Australian

A gritty, memorable story . . . Yan's study of power and class struggle becomes, in the end, a near-classic tragedy

Kirkus Review

Yan's signature biting wit creates another indelible work of bittersweet humor and socio-political insight

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