Set against the dramatic backdrop of early 20th-century China, City of Fiction by Yu Hua is a sprawling narrative that explores themes of loss, transformation, and the clash between tradition and modernity. With the old empire crumbling and the winds of change sweeping across the nation, the story follows a quiet man from the North who embarks on a journey south through a relentless snowstorm, carrying with him a newborn child and searching for a woman— the child's mother— who has mysteriously vanished.

What unfolds is a story that is part historical journey, part exploration of personal redemption. The man’s quest leads him to a city that doesn’t exist in the way he expects it to, a place caught between memories and reality. As the narrative weaves between the man’s quest and the story of the woman he searches for, the reader is drawn into a world where the boundaries between the personal and the collective history blur. Yu Hua masterfully juxtaposes the profound inner journeys of these two characters against the sweeping changes taking place in the country at large.

The novel is not merely about the individuals within it, but also about the world they inhabit—a world where ancient crafts are dying out, where old customs are vanishing, and where storytelling itself is evolving. It’s a tale about how people adapt to the winds of change, how they cling to the past even as they are swept along by the present. Through vivid, complex characters and rich, evocative prose, Hua takes readers on a journey through a world of violence, love, friendship, and above all, the inexorable march of time.

City of Fiction is an epic exploration of the tension between nostalgia for what is lost and the relentless pull of the future. With its intricate plot, surprising twists, and a profound meditation on the act of storytelling itself, this novel is a haunting and unforgettable read that examines the human condition within the broader context of historical upheaval.

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In general, it is an interesting book, with the story of Lin Xiangfu, who started as a woodworker but went south looking for the mother of his child; he ended up in Xizhen, a city that then becomes the center of the fiction.
The novel shifts into horror mode at times, and is hilarious at others; romantic scenes follow epic pursuits, and the main characters fight nature, bandits, and sometimes their own weaknesses.
It is divided in two parts that occur more or less simultaneously; the first part focuses on Lin, the second on Xiaomei, the mother of his “little one”.
However, I am not totally sure that putting that second part after the first really works. When you arrive at the end of the first part, Xiaomei is mostly forgotten, and discovering what happens to her does not really pay off. Also, there is a bit of first-person action by Lin in this second part. While this would feel right at home, yin-and-yang style if they were interspersed, it looks like a bit or retcon here.
The convergence of the two threads in the final pages does not work that well either. While it Is well within the general theme of the book, persons and lives bumping into each other as snowflakes in a storm, it feels anticlimactic when you get there.
There are also a few typos. Anyway, I liked it and would recommend it heartily.