The Day the Sun Died [Hardcover]

Yan Lianke has secured his place as contemporary Chinas most essential and daring novelist, with his superlative gifts for storytelling and penetrating eye for truth (New York Times Book Review). His newest novel,The Day the Sun Diedwinner of the Dream of the Red Chamber Award, one of the most prestigious honors for Chinese-language novelsis a haunting story of a town caught in a waking nightmare.

In a little village nestled in the Balou mountains, fourteen-year-old Li Niannian and his parents run a funeral parlor. One evening, he notices a strange occurrence. Instead of preparing for bed, more and more neighbors appear in the streets and fields, carrying on with their daily business as if the sun hadnt already set. Li Niannian watches, mystified. As hundreds of residents are found dreamwalking, they act out the desires theyve suppressed during waking hours. Before long, the community devolves into chaos, and its up to Li Niannian and his parents to save the town before sunrise.

Set over the course of one increasingly bizarre night,The Day the Sun Diedis a propulsive, darkly sinister tale from a world-class writer.The night sky was vast, the wheat fields were minute, and the sounds from the fields were swallowed by the night. In the end, there was a kind of stillness. The lamp lights in the wheat field were muddy yellow, Uncle Zhang walked through this muddy yellow light as he left the town and headed north. After a while, the children stopped following him, and simply stood at the entrance to town. I, however, continued following him. I wanted to watch as he bumped into a tree or an electrical pole, because when he did, his nose would start bleeding and he would wake up with a shout. I wanted to see what his first response would be upon waking up from his dreamwalking. I wanted to see what he would say, and what he would do.

Fortunately, Uncle Zhangs familys field was not very far. After proceeding north for aboutló(