*Open Secrets* by Alice Munro Publisher: Beijing October Arts and Literature Publishing House

About the book · · · · · ·
What makes life unbearable is not the present state of life,

but the possibility of another life.

✧ Nobel laureate Alice Munro's ambitious work, creating a unique Munroverse

-Winner of the W.H. Smith Literary Award | Named a New York Times Notable Book of the Year

-Challenging the novel with interconnected short stories: "In Open Secrets, some characters reappear. Katherine Mansfield said something similar in a letter: 'Oh, I want to write a novel, I wish I didn't leave behind only fragmented stories.'" —Munro's own words

✧ Breaking the conventional short story format, these are Munro's serial stories

-8 short stories, interconnected, weaving a labyrinth of branching fates through recurring characters

-Accidental life: Life can take a detour at any moment, my relationship with the world is precarious

-Turbulence of time: Breaking linear narrative, presenting struggles, growth, and transformation through jumps and repetitions

-“Life is not only made up of what happens in reality, but also of what happens in fantasy, another life that is inextricably linked to what we call real life.” —Munro's own words

✧ With absolute sharpness, it cuts through pretense and self-deception. When facing life, we always refuse to admit the open secret:

We are merely enduring. The possibility of another life constantly tempts us.

-It only becomes an open secret when people choose to ignore it.

- “Looking up from this moment's life, you can feel the world cracking outside the walls.”

✧ Highly praised by readers at home and abroad, a critically acclaimed work that offers both a puzzle-like reading experience and a sharp sting

-Utilizes nesting, multi-linear narrative, non-linear time, and other techniques to create whitespace, leaving readers to discover silent secrets on their own

-Writes about repressed yet inextinguishable female desires, delving into an unspoken inner world

✧ A new translation by Chinese-American bilingual writer Zhang Hongling, perfectly restoring Munro's incisiveness and tenderness

Alice Munro proves, in an uncompromising way, that love rarely saves us, rarely brings reliable happiness, and few things can destroy us as much as our own dreams. This seems to be an unbearable darkness, even pain, but fortunately, her piercing sobriety is mixed with something else—because I can't think of a more fitting word, I can only call it tenderness.

——Nobel Prize in Literature citation

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A librarian engrossed in love letters reads about her soldier lover's marriage in the newspaper while waiting for him to return home;

An orphan caught in a murder case willingly goes to prison; only there is she safe, for she has nowhere else to go;

A free-spirited female hunter is urged by her friend to marry, "Marriage will lead you out of yourself and into a real life."

...

Eight stories, independent yet interconnected, write about the shared concerns and "secrets" of women from different eras, regions, and ages. They traverse memory and time, gaining insights and growing amidst life's currents.

Changing, resisting, escaping, compromising, they harbor secrets, as if ready to break free from their destined paths and rush towards an unknown life.

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Even if "Open Secrets" had not yet been published, we should have awarded the Giller Prize to Munro, because she had already written the best novel of the year.

——David Staines (Giller Prize judge)

Writers like her are often considered, no matter how famous they already are, to deserve to be even more famous.

——Margaret Atwood

When Alice Munro "sweeps the floor," she can sweep out jewels from a pile of trash.

——Su Tong

When I say that fiction is my religion, she is one of the few writers who come to mind.

——Jonathan Franzen