"Past Events in Yazhen" Author: Cao Kou Publisher: Shanghai Literature and Art Publishing House

Judging from his name, Cao Kou cannot be a serious guy, but I am willing to recommend his novels seriously. If you are empty and bored and happen to catch up with a book by Cao Kou, what else can I say to you? I can only congratulate you.

——Bi Feiyu

Reading this collection of novels is like listening to Cao Kou's rap. Each story is told deeply, sometimes sad, sometimes gentle, sometimes wild, and very moving.

——Wutiaoren·Mao Tao

Mr. Cao's melancholy meditation on returning home, a dark adventure in a small town on the Yangtze River Delta

This is a collection of novels set in a riverside town in the Yangtze River Delta. Yazhen is the name of this misty town. It consists of a group of short and medium-length novels about classmates in their youth, young women who leave their hometowns to work hard, middle-aged people obsessed with fishing, and migrant workers traveling between towns and cities. It tells the inexplicable embarrassment encountered by a prodigal son who returns to his hometown, the relatives and friends who depend on each other but hate each other, and the melancholy meditation on daily life. Regarding this book, Cao Kou called it "the product of the so-called 'village life' in the past two years" and intended to "write it as a farmer sitting in the village, and focus on writing about the current life in towns and cities."

About the Author