Lenin's Kisses

An absurdist masterpiece. A provocative and bitingly humourous tragicomedy of greed and corruption.

Lenin's Kisses is a brilliant novel about modern China. Blind, deaf, and disfigured, the 197 citizens of the Village of Liven enjoy a peaceful lifestyle, spared from the government's watchful eye. But when an unseasonal snowstorm wipes out the grain crops, a county official convinces the villagers to set up a travelling freak-show showcasing their disabilities. With the money, he intends to buy Lenin's embalmed corpse from Russia and install it in a mausoleum in the mountains to attract tourism to the sleepy district.

Lenin's Kisses is a rollicking tragicomedy with a cast of moving characters—a cautionary tale of the all-consuming desire for power and wealth from one of China's most respected and celebrated writers.

Yan Lianke was born in 1958 in Henan Province, China. Text has published his novels Serve the People! and...