Buying a Fishing Rod for my Grandfather

Gao Xingjian was born in 1940 in Jiangxi province in eastern China, and has lived in France since 1987. Gao is considered an artistic innovator in his native China, both in the visual arts and in literature. He is that rare multi-talented artist who excels as a novelist, playwright, essayist, director and painter. Two novels, the internationally best-selling ‘Soul Mountain’ and ‘One Man's Bible’, are available in English, as well as a volume of his art entitled ‘Return to Painting’.

Praise for Buying a Fishing Rod for My Grandfather: 'Lyrical and plain, descriptively compelling and as brilliantly ordinary as Chekhov's stories of the 1890s, the six stories in this collection beautifully demonstrate Gao's proposition that fiction is 'the actualisation of language and not the imitation of reality.' His writing, here as elsewhere, is simple and profound.' Daily Telegraph 'Xingjian is an author who can communicate depths of feeling through snatches of conversation and single, well-chosen images ... Achieves the understated, expressive concision that defines China's singular contribution to modern literature ' Guardian 'Like the expansive, ink-washed abstract paintings reproduced in his recently published monograph, Return to Painting, Xingjian's stories brim with sensual clarity that has as its counterpoint an irresistible psychological confusion.' January Magazine Praise for Gao Xingjian: 'Brilliant and poetic, keen and original ! Gao's ambition is to transcend the specifics of time and place, to write a meditation on literature itself and its ability to reveal the raging, brutal, brilliant beast that is mankind itself ! [His work] burns with a powerfully individualistic fire of intelligence and depth of feeling.' New York Times