«The Book of Life» by contemporary Chinese writer Li Peifu reveals to the reader vivid and realistic pictures of life in the village of Wuliancun, located on the Great Chinese Plain — in the very heart of the Celestial Empire. Here, behind the comedic situations and lively images presented by the author, lie the true tragedies of small people. Each of them, even the kindest, can be trampled into the dirt by the vices of this world — envy, cowardice, greed, lust for power — and kill all that is human within them. The author, addressing the reader in the first person, invites them to walk together through his life journey — from an orphan nicknamed Lost One, nurtured by the community, to an adult man who has earned more than one million, yet remains lonely.
