Yang Fei was born on a moving train, lost by his mother, adopted by a young railway worker, raised with simplicity and love—utterly unprepared for the changes that await him and his country.

As a young man, he searches for a place to belong in a nation ceaselessly reinventing itself.

At forty-one, he meets an unceremonious death, and lacking the money for a burial plot, must roam the afterworld aimlessly.

There, over the course of seven days, he encounters the souls of people he's lost, and as he retraces the path of his life, we meet an extraordinary cast of characters: his adoptive father, beautiful ex-wife, neighbours who perished in the demolition of their homes.

Vivid, urgent and panoramic, Yang Fei's passage movingly traces the contours of his vast nation - its absurdities, its sorrows and its soul.

This searing novel affirms Yu Hua's place as the standard-bearer of Chinese fiction.

A former dentist, now a bestselling writer in Asia, Yu Hua is the acclaimed author of five novels, six story collections and four essay collections. His work has been translated into more than twenty languages. He has received many awards, including the James Joyce Award, France's Prix Courrier International, and Italy's Premio Grinzane Cavour. Yu Hua lives in Beijing.