Books like Big Breasts & Wide Hips by Mo Yan

Mo Yan, China's most important contemporary literary voice, delivers a sweeping historical novel set against the backdrop of revolutionary changes and cultural upheavals in 20th-century China. The story centers on Mother, a strong woman born in 1900 and married at 17 into the Shangguan family. She has nine children, only one of whom is a boy, the narrator of the book. The protagonist is a spoiled and ineffectual child, standing in stark contrast to her eight strong and forceful female siblings. The writing is picturesque, bawdy, shocking, and imaginative. Each of the seven chapters represents a different time period, from the end of the Qing dynasty up through the Japanese invasion in the 1930s, the civil war, the Cultural Revolution, and the post-Mao years. The novel is a searing vision of twentieth-century China and a tribute to the enduring strength of women.

First publish date: 1998