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From master storyteller Yan Lianke, winner of the prestigious Franz Kafka Prize and a finalist for the Man Booker International Prize, The Four Books is a powerful, daring novel of the dog-eat-dog psychology inside a labor camp for intellectuals during Maos Great Leap Forward. A renowned author in China, and among its most censored, Yans mythical, sometimes surreal tale cuts to the bone in its portrayal of the struggle between authoritarian power and mans will to prevail against the darkest odds through camaraderie, love, and faith. In the ninety-ninth district of a sprawling reeducation compound, freethinking artists and academics are detained to strengthen their loyalty to Communist ideologies. Here, the Musician and her lover, the Scholaralong with the Author and the Theologianare forced to carry out grueling physical work and are encouraged to inform on each other for dissident behavior.