Peach Blossom Paradise by Ge Fei

This book is the first volume in the author's Jiangnan Trilogy and was just recently translated into English so that it can be enjoyed by a broader audience outside of China. It reminds me in many ways of the Dream of the Red Chamber by Cao Xueqin, who wrote in the 18th century. and left no romantic notions of love in the time of dynasties. This book takes place at the start of the 20th century during the lawless final years of the Qing Dynasty, and although the Xinhai Revolution and the establishment of the Republic of China provide it backdrop, this sinuous, captivating epic is less interested in textbook history than in the madness and illusions that underwrite it. The novel centers on the character of Xiumi, whom we meet as a 15-year-old girl in a declining but previously wealthy estate in a village north of the Yangtze River. Xiumi’s father has gone insane and disappeared, apparently to seek out a mythical paradise known as the Peach Blossom Spring. Replacing him in the household is a man claiming to be Xiumi’s uncle, who keeps suspect company, speaks about an imminent political upheaval and does little to disguise his lecherous thoughts about Xiumi. He is only the first man she encounters in a growing web of revolutionaries, imperial spies, assassins and gangsters, all of whom view her as a spoil of battle. But the power dynamic alters when Xiumi adapts to the ruthlessness of age, emerging as one of the leading conspirators in the insurrection. This is an atmospheric and engrossing read.