A thrilling journey through China's dark criminal underworld, from a celebrated voice in Chinese literature
When Hongyang is found dead after a night of debauched drinking, it looks as if his reign of terror has finally come to an end.
Few in this insular community have much reason to mourn his passing: Hongyang is an infamous mob boss, a man with plenty of enemies. But now it seems that his years of crime have also earned him some very dangerous friends.
As his funeral draws near, those who knew him come together to look back on a life characterised by corruption, deceit and a flair for violence. Their recollections will keep Hongyang's legacy alive, with terrifying consequences.
From the master of Chinese noir fiction comes this explosive new novel about the power of one man, unravelled by a tangled web of secrets.
Autorentext
Born in 1976 in Ruichang, in the province of Jiangxi, A Yi worked as a policeman, sports journalist and editor before deciding to dedicate himself to writing at the age of thirty-two. After a brief period on the editorial board of Chinese literary magazine Chutzpah/Tian Nan, he began working in a publishing house. His first work, a collection of short stories, was released in 2008. In 2010 he published his second story collection, The Bird Saw Me, to popular and critical acclaim. In 2012, his novel A Perfect Crime was published in China (English edition Oneworld, 2015). A collection of his short stories, Two Lives, was published in English by Flame Tree Press in 2020. Wake Me Up at Nine in the Morning was first published in China in 2017.
Klappentext
An electrifying story about the explosive power of secrets, from a celebrated Chinese novelist
Infamous local thug Hongyang is found dead by his lover after a night of debauched drinking. Hongyang is a man with plenty of enemies, any one of whom could be responsible for his death...
Piecing together the story of Hongyang's violent criminal past through the voices of his friends, family, and his former lover Aiwan, Wake Me Up at Nine in the Morning is a breathless and immersive journey into China's criminal underworld. It is also a terrifying snapshot of a society in which cynicism and suspicion reign supreme. Written with Yi's trademark confident prose and taut, suspenseful style, this is an unmissable read from a star of Chinese literature.