"Destiny" Author: Cai Chongda Publisher: Zhejiang Literature and Art Publishing House

Editor's Recommendation:

Eight years after his non-fiction work Skin, which sold over four million copies, Cai Chongda returns with his new novel Destiny!

Dedicated to you who want to change your destiny: "As long as we live, destiny can't defeat us in the end."

◇Li Jingze wrote the preface, and Andy Lau, Han Han, Bai Yansong and Cheng Yongxin jointly recommended it - a surprising work that directly faces the essential proposition of life and touches people's hearts.

◇The sea asks people who live by the sea, just as fate asks us: In your life, do you want to take risks and "seek the sea", or just live comfortably and "seek the small sea"? How do you want to live? Have you found who you want to be?

◇Writing about the impermanence of one person, seeing the fate of all people: Taking the legendary life of A Tai, the core character of "Skin", as the main line, those fierce struggles with fate, those silent loves and unforgettable farewells. The history of a person's spiritual growth is also the echo of the fate of each of us.

◇Exhausting all the efforts a woman can make to rewrite her fate, recalling the spiritual homeland that has been lost in the hearts of Chinese people for a hundred years. She has refused to accept fate, disbelieved in it, and fought against it; she has gained and lost in her life, and always believed that "my life is in my own hands"; she gave birth to her own destiny, she has been in this world, and she will never return.

◇Some people gradually understand what love is, while others understand it in an instant. Before finding love, you must first find yourself: "People who want to live different lives cannot live together."

◇How to face death is how to face life and time. Only when you know how to die can you know how to live. "A good death is like a ripe fruit that falls from a tree naturally. When you die, neither the world nor yourself will be hurt."

◇We all survive by listening to other people’s stories. By looking at our history and origins in the stories, we can see our choices and future: “The human soul grows out of these stories. People use one body after another to contain these stories.”

◇Skin is the pain of fate piercing life, and Fate is the choice of Skin to fight alone. Fate transcends Skin and takes a deep leap towards the essential proposition of literature.

◇Collection of hardcover, small size with textured double cover, conveys heavy propositions in a light manner.

◇Life is hard, and so many people have to wade through day after day in silence. Destiny is like the sea, and only when people are bound can they find a place to stay. This is a spiritual story that makes you cry and gives you strength. After reading it, you will find that the tears are actually shed for yourself.

Contents:

"Destiny" is a novel that Cai Chongda wrote eight years after "Skin".

The line in Skin, "Skin is for use, not for serving," comes from the protagonist of Fate, A-Tai. Fate is based on the life story of the 99-year-old woman, connecting the life stories, destiny choices, and ups and downs of several generations in a coastal town in southern Fujian.

The book uses five memories of A Tai to cut into the essential propositions that people have to face in the long river of time:

Layers of Waves: You have no past, only a future.

When the originally stable way of life is broken, the traditional order that provides shelter is torn apart, and each of the frail people is caught in the great uncertainty, how can they survive? Where can they place their inner peace?

Sea Soil: Inspiration is the soil floating on the sea——

Bonds and meaning are the ballast stones of the human soul, which prevent it from being overturned when the waves of life come. Those people in A Tai's life who lost their ballast stones were taken away by fate one by one. At this time, she was only sixteen years old.

Flowers in the field: Flowers that want to bear fruit bow their heads early.

Carrying the prophecy of "no children, no grandchildren, no sons to see her off", she got married, had a husband and adopted a child. But people who have seen fate will understand that the torrent of fate never stops, and people in it do not know which farewell is the final farewell.

Buddha in the Toilet: A Place of Decay, a Place of Gods——

How can we keep our inner clarity and faith under the great waves of the times? The easiest way to live in this world is to live for others. And if that person happens to live for you, then no matter how hard life is, it will be as sweet as sweet potatoes.

Zenith hole: Either rest in peace or shoot into the sky -

As A-Tai's story came to an end, death became her close old friend. She finally gave birth to her own destiny and became the mother of her own destiny. She had been to this world, and she would never return.

Media Comments:

This is a book about bottoms.

In our personal lives and in our common lives, there are those beliefs that operate secretly at the bottom and fundamentally support us; those forces that allow us to stand up and move forward in the face of limited choices and great impermanence; those inner gods that make us believe that life and living have their own meaning.

The tree is not aware of its roots. Its branches and leaves happily face the sky, but the growth and extension of the tree actually come from its roots. The power in the soil leads us upward.

Therefore, "Destiny" is ultimately about "roots". The patient and tortuous narrative is a journey - towards our roots, towards our spiritual hometown and the distance.

——Li Jingze

Sunda's debut in the English-speaking world is so dazzling, and his portrait of a changing China is fascinating. His work sparkles with the intelligence of an excellent novelist.

——Publishers Weekly, USA

Deeply moving… Cai Chongda’s deep respect and love for his loved ones shines through in the moving and poignant images he creates.

——American "Bibliographic Magazine"

Cai Chongda's work is written based on local folk traditions, and is an out-and-out modern novel. It is not only quite rare in genre, but also unique among translated works. It helps readers discover life that most people cannot see, and this kind of empathy can transcend national boundaries, cultures, and languages.

—Dylan King (Translator of Skin)

About the Author · · · · · ·