Xiaolu Guo was born in China. She published six books before moving to Britain in 2002. Her books include: Village of Stone, shortlisted for the Independent Foreign Fiction Prize; A Concise Chinese-English Dictionary for Lovers, shortlisted for the Orange Prize; and I Am China. Her recent memoir, Once Upon a Time in the East, won the National Book Critics Circle Award, was shortlisted for the Costa Biography Award and the Rathbones Folio Prize 2018. It was a Sunday Times Book of the Year. Her most recent novel A Lover's Discourse was shortlisted for the Goldsmiths Prize 2020. She is a fellow of the Royal Society of Literature and a visiting professor at the Free University in Berlin.

"Guo's humour is bracingly ironic and tinderbox dry" The Times "A fast moving, barbed polemic...a sharp little book in which the legacy of the Cultural Revolution shimmers and festers... A writer to read, a writer who makes every word count" Irish Times "A breath of the freshest air imaginable. She cuts through the smog of hype and platitude" -- Boyd Tonkin Independent "Sprightly... the comedy is neatly poised... a damning portrait of totalitarian China" Scotland on Sunday "The novel resonates in revelations of loss and pain" Guardian

Xiaolu Guo was born in China. She published six books before moving to Britain in 2002. Her books include: Village of Stone, shortlisted for the Independent Foreign Fiction Prize; A Concise Chinese-English Dictionary for Lovers, shortlisted for the Orange Prize; and I Am China. Her recent memoir, Once Upon a Time in the East, won the National Book Critics Circle Award, was shortlisted for the Costa Biography Award and the Rathbones Folio Prize 2018. It was a Sunday Times Book of the Year. Her most recent novel A Lover's Discourse was shortlisted for the Goldsmiths Prize 2020. She is a fellow of the Royal Society of Literature and a visiting professor at the Free University in Berlin.

"Guo's humour is bracingly ironic and tinderbox dry" The Times "A fast moving, barbed polemic...a sharp little book in which the legacy of the Cultural Revolution shimmers and festers... A writer to read, a writer who makes every word count" Irish Times "A breath of the freshest air imaginable. She cuts through the smog of hype and platitude" -- Boyd Tonkin Independent "Sprightly... the comedy is neatly poised... a damning portrait of totalitarian China" Scotland on Sunday "The novel resonates in revelations of loss and pain" Guardian

Xiaolu Guo was born in China. She published six books before moving to Britain in 2002. Her books include: Village of Stone, shortlisted for the Independent Foreign Fiction Prize; A Concise Chinese-English Dictionary for Lovers, shortlisted for the Orange Prize; and I Am China. Her recent memoir, Once Upon a Time in the East, won the National Book Critics Circle Award, was shortlisted for the Costa Biography Award and the Rathbones Folio Prize 2018. It was a Sunday Times Book of the Year. Her most recent novel A Lover's Discourse was shortlisted for the Goldsmiths Prize 2020. She is a fellow of the Royal Society of Literature and a visiting professor at the Free University in Berlin.

"Guo's humour is bracingly ironic and tinderbox dry" The Times "A fast moving, barbed polemic...a sharp little book in which the legacy of the Cultural Revolution shimmers and festers... A writer to read, a writer who makes every word count" Irish Times "A breath of the freshest air imaginable. She cuts through the smog of hype and platitude" -- Boyd Tonkin Independent "Sprightly... the comedy is neatly poised... a damning portrait of totalitarian China" Scotland on Sunday "The novel resonates in revelations of loss and pain" Guardian