This book really packed a punch. It tells the story of a mother in poverty trying to care for her disabled children. It was harrowing and heartbreaking but so well written.

These two novellas are dark- the subject matter is grim- but they do have spots of light humor and positivity, Thanks to netgalley for the opportunity to read this important Chinese writer,

We follow an elderly man and his blind companion dog as they fight heat, hunger, and madness during an impossibly long drought. Alone in a deserted village our hero, identified simply as "The Elder", strains to nurture a single growing stalk of corn. I'm sure you could write reams about what that means from a political, cultural and social perspective, but I was content to experience the story simply as a crafted work of literary storytelling. Lianke is almost obsessed with similes. There are entire pages in which each sentence contains a simple straightforward "as" or "like". Some are beautiful - moonbeams fell like pear blossoms - but many are discordant or intentionally disconnected; smells feel like noises, noises feel like colors. So, "time was baked to ash", "the dog ..barked..like a dried tangerine peel", the sun's rays generated "a clear, white squeaking sound". This is heady, hallucinatory stuff, and as the tale builds up speed to its almost foreordained conclusion this poetic fantastic style sweeps the reader along with The Elder.

The Years, Months, Days were really intense novellas with the intensity of famine and loneliness heightened by Lianke's way with analogy.

Copy furnished by Net Galley for the price of a review.

This was a poor match for me.  The book is made up of two novellas.  <i>The Years, Months, Days</i> is existential in the extreme.  Sadly, I found it tedious and abstruse.  The second offering, <i>Marrow</i>, was slightly more enjoyable to me with plenty of dark and disturbing material there.  

My anemic rating is not based on the writing, but is merely a reflection of a misbegotten choice on my part.  My big plan of trying something really different came to naught, but it's hard to ignore that cover art.

A work of art painted with words

This book consists of two novellas translated from the Chinese (by Carlos Rojas)

The author, who was born at the beginning of the Great Famine that claimed the lives of tens of millions of Chinese, was no stranger to hunger which is the central theme of The Years, Months, Days, the first of the two novellas. An Elder is a 72-year-old man who is the only person remaining in his village in central China. He stays behind when everyone else flees from the devastating effects of the crippling and unrelenting drought. He stays not only because he knows he would not survive the journey, but also because on his plot of land he is carefully nurturing a single corn plant which he has managed to grow, using his own waste matter to irrigate and fertilise the struggling plant. The Elder and his old blind dog form a close and devoted team, each one caring for the other and jointly for the corn stalk, and bound by the constant presence of a hunger and thirst they can hear and smell as well as feel.

The Elder has two over-riding aims: to nurture the corn sprout to maturity and to save the grain so there will be seeds to kick-start agriculture in the village once the drought has broken; and to outlive Blindy, as he calls the dog, so he can bury him. The odds are stacked overwhelmingly against him. They both fight the daily furnace heat of the sun, the desiccating winds, rats, wolves, plant disease, their hunger, thirst, and their own weakening. The devotion and loyalty of the sightless, starving dog and its sensitivity and responsiveness to the Elder, will bring a lump to your throat, as will the unwavering determination of the weak, emaciated and yet unbowed Elder to do the best for his faithful friend.

The author’s use of the most beautiful, unusual, original and often startling analogies had me constantly re-reading and chewing over his words, and I feel enormously privileged to have read this story. Just one example of his use of analogy: “His crackling laugh was coarse and brittle, like slow-roasted soybeans”.

Did the Elder succeed in his aims? Did he survive the drought? Read this gem and allow the story to enrich your senses. And try to imagine, as I am doing, the sound made by red petals falling ...

However, the second novella, “Marrow”, did not touch me as did the first. It was an uncomfortable read partly, I think, because of the almost universal unease felt in the presence of a disability. Fourth Wife You gives birth to three girls and a boy by her husband Stone You. All four children develop epilepsy, and when Stone You is told that he, whilst asymptomatic, carries the epilepsy gene and is responsible for his children’s condition, he takes his own life. Fourth Wife You is left to bring up his “idiot children”, as they are cruelly called by the villagers, alone and unaided.

Hunger is also central to this story, but a different kind of hunger – more a dogged determination to give the children the best life she can, and to marry them off when they are old enough. This is no easy task and costs Fourth Wife You dear. Her last child, the boy is known as Fourth Idiot, is far worse affected by his disability and finding him a wife proves to be an impossible task. As in “The Years, Months, Days”, in which the Elder talks to the dog, to the sun, to the cornstalk, to his hunger, Fourth Wife You is in constant conversation with the spirit, or ghost, of Stone You, who is always at her side offering advice and help.

But there is a glimmer of hope. Second Son-in-Law has a dream in which a Chinese medical practitioner tells him that bone marrow soup will cure epilepsy, preferably bones of a dead relative and the closer the better ...

Yan Lianke is a hugely gifted and sensitive writer, and all praise is due, too, to Carlos Rojas for his beautiful translation. I would give “The Years, Months, Days” six stars if I could, and “Marrow” three, so I will average them out at four.

Bennie Bookworm

Breakaway Reviewers received a copy of the book to review.

These two novellas were not my cup of tea. I found them both too tedious and repetitive and despite being short reads I had to force myself to finish them.

"Living, after all, is better than dying."

Yan Lianke is celebrated in China as the author of numerous award winning novels, novellas, and short stories. Many of his works are inclined toward parody and satire and a number of his books have been banned or censored. Having been born in 1958, he experienced enough of Mao, The Great Leap Forward, and The Cultural Revolution that he speaks with authority, grace and some bitterness about the upheavals of that era.

These two works, (1997's "The Years, Months, and Days" and 2001's "Marrow"), are novellas that are set in a peasant farming world of want and despair. They didn't strike me as particularly pointed from a political or cultural point of view, although I'm sure there were subtle allusions that escaped me. What was clear, though, was Lianke's stylistic approach, which seemed to be aimed at switching wildly and suddenly from the realistic to the fabulist. On one hand one reads a stark paragraph about digging up rats' nests during a famine in order to search for kernels of stockpiled corn, and then in the next paragraph one is surrounded by a flowing river of mystical rats. This ebb and flow between realism and the fantastic drives each narrative.

"The Years, Months, and Days" struck me as the most compelling of the two tales. We follow an elderly man and his blind companion dog as they fight heat, hunger, and madness during an impossibly long drought. Alone in a deserted village our hero, identified simply as "The Elder", strains to nurture a single growing stalk of corn. I'm sure you could write reams about what that means from a political, cultural and social perspective, but I was content to experience the story simply as a crafted work of literary storytelling. Lianke is almost obsessed with similes. There are entire pages in which each sentence contains a simple straightforward "as" or "like". Some are beautiful - moonbeams fell like pear blossoms - but many are discordant or intentionally disconnected; smells feel like noises, noises feel like colors. So, "time was baked to ash", "the dog ..barked..like a dried tangerine peel", the sun's rays generated "a clear, white squeaking sound". This is heady, hallucinatory stuff, and as the tale builds up speed to its almost foreordained conclusion this poetic fantastic style sweeps the reader along with The Elder.

"Marrow" struck me as less engaging and compulsive and it read at points like a morality tale by way of "The Twilight Zone". It still worked as a meditation on family, motherhood, and sacrifice, but it didn't have the bravura excess or the almost hypnotic narrative drive I found so appealing in "The Years, Months, and Days".

The upshot? These two works may not be essential Lianke, and they don't seem to be as important as his novels in terms of why he's a significant and controversial figure in China, but they certainly give you a sense of Lianke as a writer and a stylist, and they certainly reward the reader, if only because of their often inspired otherness. This was a nice change of pace and a rewarding choice.

(Please note that I received a free advance ecopy of this book without a review requirement, or any influence regarding review content should I choose to post a review. Apart from that I have no connection at all to either the author or the publisher of this book.)

Yan Lianke, born in 1958 in Henan Province experienced hunger and deprivation during the "Great Leap Forward", a push to grow the economy that produced "seismic hunger" instead. "The Years, Months, Days: Two Novellas" is a window into feelings of desperation and hunger while yearning for the betterment of family and society.

The first novella, "The Years, Months, Days tells of the mass exodus from a village as a result of extreme drought. The "Elder", 72 years old, becomes its sole inhabitant. He remains, fearing he would be unable to survive an anticipated three day journey. Staying with Elder is "Blindy" a stray dog, so named by Elder because he was blinded by the sun's rays. The duo try to raise a fledgling corn seedling. How can they keep it watered and protected from the sun and predatory animals? It becomes apparent that the corn seedling is failing. Elder is forced to exercise extreme measures to insure the potential future of the village.

In the second novella "Marrow", the yearning and desire of Fourth Wife Yu is to harvest her abundant corn crop. She has farmed alone on mountainous land furthest from the village. Yu Village aka Four Idiots Village is so named because her three daughters and son have epilepsy.In addition, they cannot even count to ten. Her husband, Stone Yu has taken his life rather than raise his four idiot children. Fourth Wife Yu wants to ensure her children's happiness. She is able to marry off Eldest Daughter to a cripple and Second Daughter to a one-eyed husband. Third Daughter, however, wants to marry a "wholer". Fourth Wife Yu happens upon a way to fulfill this dream. A medicinal soup made using the bones of a blood relative will cure Third Daughter. Additional familial bones are needed to normalize the other children. What to do?

"The Years, Months,Days: Two Novellas" by Yan Lianke is a fantastical, well-written tome. Having enjoyed "Dream of a Ding Village" as well, it is no surprise to this reader that Lianke is considered to be among the best contemporary Chinese writers.

Thank you Grove Atlantic and Net Galley for the opportunity to read and review "The Years, Months, Days"

The Years, Months, Days: Two Novellas by Yan Lianke is a translation of one of China's rising writers. Lianke is a Chinese writer of novels and short stories based in Beijing. His work is highly satirical, which has resulted in some of his most renowned works being banned.

Carlos Rojos gives the introduction to this collection.  Lianke is no stranger to hunger.  He was born in the first year of the Great Leap Forward (1958).  The rush to grow an economy rivaling Britian ended up creating famine instead.  Tens of millions died throughout the country.  It is little surprise that the title story of "The Years, Months, Days" centers on drought and hunger. 

The village elder decides he would not survive the move east out of the drought affecting the village so he decides to stay and care for a seeding corn plant.  The plant represents the village's future as the source for seed for the next season's crops.  The Elder is left with a blind dog as a companion who seems to understand what he is being told.  The story has a Twilight Zone eeriness to it. The loneliness and emptiness of life jump from the pages.  It is as if the elder was abandoned on a barren planet and not his home village.  He takes his duty to the plant seriously and the aptly named dog, "Blindy", becomes his world to him.  Hunger and unexpected enemies begin to make life even more difficult.  The Elder's senses adapt to his surroundings.  He can hear the sunset and the sound of his corn plant growing.  He measures the sun's heat by its weight.  It is a story of duty where minor things become the most important. 

The second story, "Marrow", takes the uncanniness in a different direction.  Here an almost fairytale imagery drives the story.  Stone You and Fourth Wife You have three daughters who suffer from what seems like a form of epilepsy and not much intelligence. Counting to ten and performing simple tasks were nearly impossible.  The children acted more like apes than humans.  Stone You drowns himself after finding out Fourth Wife You was pregnant again.  Fourth Wife worked the farm and raised the children.  Daughter Number One and Daughter Number Two had been married off to men who were also less than whole.  Daughter Number Three is tormented by the youngest, her brother, Fourth Idiot.  The bulk of the story is finding Daughter Number Three a "wholer" to marry. This story reads like a demented fairytale the reader will be both appalled and drawn into the story.  It is disturbing in many ways but still something not to be put down.  

Lianke can weave a compelling story despite the bleakness of the first story and perhaps the, contemporary American,  offensiveness of the second story.  Both stories are writing in a simple but beautiful language.  The simplicity of the language is much akin to the skills needed in making an old movie before special effects.  The reader relies on Lianke's profound storytelling ability rather than gimmicks or tricks.  A very interesting and worthwhile cross-cultural work.

These two novellas may be different in style, texture and content and indeed may well require greater thought and understanding from the average western reader, however this should not distract such a reader from embarking and exploring such rich majestic work. The forward by the translator Carlos Rojas provides a useful introduction to the new reader of Yan Lianke works explaining the historic context of the world that the author was born into in 1958 which was the time of the euphemistically termed "Three Years of Natural Disaster" which was a period of self induced famine causing the deaths of millions. It is this reality that the first story "The Years, Months, Days" can be viewed against as the story revolves around the ever present spectre of hunger and the daily fight for survival. The writing is rich in analogy and symbolism as one man and a blind dog are left in a deserted village to survive. There is of course underlying an element of political satire but the writer has admitted to a degree of self censorship to avoid censorship by the authorities.

The second story is equally rooted in analogy, mysticism and symbolism. Marrow is the story of a family with four children who all suffer from disability. The mother's quest to marry off the third daughter to a suitable husband in the face of poverty and deprivation is the underlying narrative of the novella but there is much more in terms of themes explored. The supernatural is viewed as natural in this setting in rural China.

One can well understand why some of his works have been banned in China but I think if you want a rich thought provoking reading experience then I would recommend this to all discerning and inquisitive readers.

These two novellas have a mystical quality. While you read there is a sense of all times: the ancient, the modern and the futuristic. The structure follows traditional folktale style, but the settings have both a futuristic quality to them (people free of disability being known as wholers) and speaks to the modern world (climate change). The writing is mesmerizing and reminded me a bit of Paulo Cohelo's work. Recommended.

These novellas were a unique reading experience! It is easy to understand that the author survived times of extreme drought and famine, based on these. His work deconstructs what survival means.