This short novel (about 180 pages) is blessed by exceptional writing, the more impressive considering the challenging subject matter. The story moves back and forth between Coral’s life with her boyfriend in Beijing now and her upbringing in the Village of Stone, a largely isolated, poverty-stricken fishing village on the South China Sea. Orphaned and raised by grandparents who did not speak to each other, Little Dog is not only scorned by the village but is raped, abused, and imprisoned by the village mute, then deals with an unwanted pregnancy followed by an abortion, and finds both herself and her grandmother ostracized within the village. Her resilience and fortitude in the face of her life are little short of extraordinary. I was very impressed with Xiaolu’s writing and dismayed to learn just how much of the story may be autobiographical. Notwithstanding a horrendous childhood, she not only survived but prospered. She moved from China to Britain at the age of 29 and published her first novel written in English a mere five years later. (She has written at least six other novels, a couple memoirs, essays, a short story collection and directed nearly a dozen films, picking up prizes in both mediums frequently along the way.) This particular book was shortlisted for both the Independent Foreign Fiction Prize (forerunner to the Booker) as well as the International IMPAC Dublin Literary Award and it’s easy to see why. Highly recommended. ( )

A great emotional story. Coral (Little Dog) and Red live in Beijing. One day Coral receives a large package from Village of Stone with an eel in it. While Coral reminds her of childhood memories that she has banished deeply, Red tries to get a Fresbe tournament on its feet.
Coral's memories are very touching. She is raised by her grandparents, who have not spoken to each other for decades. Coral's mother died at birth and her birth father disappeared before birth. Coral grows up in poverty. She likes to stroll through the village, being chased by the mute and raped at seven. She is so ashamed that she doesn't tell anyone.
The grandfather dies first and her grandmother blooms. When her grandmother dies, she doesn't stay much longer in the village.
This story is very touching, I highly recommend it. ( )

‘’But the Village of Stone- that tiny corner of the sea that, on a map of China, appears as nothing more than a deep blue stain, with no air or shipping routes to link it with anywhere else - still exerts a strange sort of pull on me. Like a recurring dream that appears each and every midnight, or some profound and inescapable homesickness, I somehow find myself remaining loyal to its memory. I think of it at odd and unexpected moments: as I am walking through the city, listening to buses making their slow stops at deserted stations, or evenings after work {..} The memories come unbidden, like the tides of my childhood village, waters surging out of nowhere to inundate us up to our knees.’’

Even after so many books, so many characters, so many stories, there comes a novel that has you firmly gripped in a dark, merciless embrace that leaves you breathless and transported to a country where every corner sings of history and legends. And pain. There is immense pain in this book. And immense beauty. This is China.

Coral Jiang lives with her boyfriend, Red, in a 25-storey high-rise in Beijing. One day, an eel finds its way into their flat and Coral’s thoughts return to the Village of Stone, the land she left thirteen years ago. It is not a happy reminiscence. Relatively untouched by the Cultural Revolution, this haunting corner of the Earth comes alive through the fragrance of jasmine and the salty air of the dangerous sea. But nothing can diminish the atmosphere of sadness, hopelessness, and pain. A graveyard rules over the lives of the residents. A gravesite is chosen the moment you are born and your tombstone is raised. And it waits. It waits patiently, up there on the top of the hill. It waits because no one ever leaves the Village of Stine. The Village where the Sea Goddess refuses to bless the families, indifferent to the altars that honour her. The Village where the Sea Demon snatches away children playing on the shore. But there is nothing more threatening than a human and Coral knows it well.

‘’The cat upstairs meows all through the night, though the rest of the building is deep in sleep. In the silence, broken only by the cat’s wailing, the world seems so deserted, so cold and empty. There is nothing left to cling to in this world, nothing I can hold on to.’’

Xiaolu Guo depicts the life in the big city, the noisy metropolis, and the life in the island as equally harsh and demanding. A struggle for the individual to survive with dignity and hope. Beijing is described as a capital that can give you everything and as a city where the sun cannot be seen and the wind cannot be felt because of the monstrous buildings. The feeling of isolation and suffocation is acute. In the island, the typhoons threaten whatever peace may exist. No sun, no dreams but for the ones disrupting Coral’s troubled sleep. Any other dreams and aspirations have vanished. Children become old before their time in a society that ages, occupied by old minds and old hearts, in communities that shut the door in everyone’s face.

‘’Can you hear me, sea, tides, reefs along the shore, sand crabs crawling on the beach, can you hear what I’m saying to you? I’m begging you to listen because besides you, there is not a single person in this world I can talk to. There is no one else I can tell my story to, not even my grandmother. All I want is to be with you, just sea and tides, no pain, no death, just you, for ever and ever and ever…’’

The gradual revelation of our heroine’s past is powerful and excellently depicted. There are many raw, cruel, vicious moments that require a strong mind on the reader’s part. The chapter of the fishermen’s superstitions and hatred towards a woman from the mountains was heart-wrenching as were the references to abortion. Abuse, psychological isolation, dysfunctional relationships. A deep feeling of hopelessness, as if you drift through a life that holds no thrill, no emotions, a kind of living, breathing death. The humble eel becomes a strange symbol of endurance, continuity and a hesitant hope. Α cast of characters that become your friends or ghosts haunting your dreams. Grandma, Red, Mr. Mou and, naturally, Coral, a wonderful, brave woman that you will come to love.

On a side note, I was happy and proud to find references to the acclaimed Greek film Ulysses’ Gaze directed by Theo Angelopoulos.

No, this is not a happy story. Seldom have I found a ‘’happy’’ story that was interesting. This one is grim and haunting. Sad and terrifying. Claustrophobic like the high-rises in the big cities of China. Ferocious and screaming like the typhoons. And hopeful like the twenty-five minutes of sunshine falling on the corner of a small balcony somewhere in Beijing. Beautiful in its darkness and despair. It is an outstanding example of Contemporary Chinese Literature. It is a masterpiece.

‘’The enormous high-rise that I had once hated so vehemently now seemed welcome and familiar, like a hated friend, or a beloved enemy. As it receded from view and drew back into the depths of the night, its windows still gave off a faint, warm glow. I wondered about the people living in those rooms behind their tiny windows. Behind which windows were these people still awake, people talking, people waiting for lovers not yet returned?’’

My reviews can also be found on https://theopinionatedreaderblog.wordpress.com ( )

The arrival of a dried, salted eel from her home village triggers the reminiscence of a young Beijing woman’s childhood in a tiny fishing town on the central coast of China in the 1980s. Though the details are almost overwhelmingly tragic—abandonment by both parents in infancy, kidnapped and serially raped at age 7, raised by uncaring grandparents, loneliness and the harshness of daily life in a remote fishing community—the book is hopeful rather than depressing. The language is concise, poetic and visceral, like listening to someone recounting a vivid daydream. Unlike so much contemporary Chinese literature (so much of which is based on revealing the brutality of Chinese life in the 1960s through 1980s), there is no mention of politics or blaming political circumstances in the story, which makes this small gem of a novel feel timeless. ( )

Het blijft voor mij moeilijk je in te leven in het bestaan van een aziaat (Chinees in dit geval). Zo anders de leefgewoonten; de gedachten. Het verhaal bleef wel boeien, ook al staan er doodsaaie passages in. Aan het eind van het verhaal blijven wel wat vragen open, maar dat is niet erg; geeft stof tot nadenken! ( )