Years of Red Dust
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 First edition (French) | |
| Author | Qiu Xiaolong |
|---|---|
| Original title | Cité de la Poussière rouge |
| Language | English |
| Genre | Short stories |
| Published | French translation in 2008 English book in 2010 |
| Pages | 240 |
| ISBN | 9781429942614 |
Years of Red Dust is a collection of short stories by Qiu Xiaolong. The book in English was published in 2010;[1] but the stories were originally published in Le Monde[1] and a book in French was published in 2008.[2]
It is a story about China between 1949 and 2005, told through changes experienced by people living in the Red Dust neighbourhood in Shanghai.[3]
Each chapter tells a story from a different year, consisting of two strands, slice-of-life personal histories of ordinary people living in Red Dust Lane, mixed with the ever-changing narrative of China's socialist history.[4] Most of the stories begin with non-fiction excerpts from wall newspapers of China's past.[5] Incidents involve neighbors who are academics, those who own businesses, those who join the military, as well as manual laborers. One chapter includes a fictionalized account, based on a real life event, of preparations for the day U.S. President Richard Nixon visited Shanghai.[6]
The setting is in Shanghai where "the flow of the green slime of corruption, pollution and greed (for money), races with the flow of blood and champagne", according to Aftenposten.[7]
Sales
The book has been on best-seller lists in France and Germany.[8]
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