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Yu Hua. The Seventh Day. Fiction. Beijing. New Star Press. 2013. 232 pages. 29.50 RMB. ISBN 9787513312103
As a leading figure of the avantgarde literary movement in 1980s China, Yu Hua is famous for his calm writing style, succinct language, and realistic depictions. Both Yu Hua and Mo Yan were regarded as the most promising contenders for the Nobel Prize in Literature, yet their writings differ greatly. Seven years have passed since Yu Hua published his last novel, the controversial Brothers, in 2006. Finally he has published The Seventh Day. His publishers used the slogan "sharpening a sword for seven years" to market the novel. The book immediately drew many readers-it is said that 70,0000 copies sold on the very first day.
The opening words of Yu Hua's The Seventh Day quote a sentence from the Book of Genesis of the Hebrew Bible: "And on the seventh day God finished His work which He had made; and He rested on the seventh day from all His work which He had made." Yu Hua has taken the title of his novel from this quote. "Rest" is the key word of the entire story, which is about the restless soul.
The story is told from the perspective of a dead man. He wakes up in bed...