Harrowing, haunting, poignant . . . Mo Yan proves himself a novelist of the highest calibre

One of China's leading writers . . . his work rings with refreshing authenticity

Takes solid aim at perhaps the most notorious act of social planning the Chinese Communist Party has engineered. An expansive, fascinating cultural-political history.

His idiom has the spiralling invention and mytho-maniacal quality of much world literature of a high order, from Vargas Llosa to Rushdie

There is no denying the ease and beauty of his storytelling . . . this is often difficult subject matter - but never hard to read

Like Kafka, Yan has the ability to examine his society through a variety of lenses, creating fanciful, Metamorphosis-like transformations or evoking the numbing bureaucracy and casual cruelty of modern governments. Deftly explores the human toll of national policy and historical forces

Frog has that wonderful sense of flipping between the mundane and the fantastic... Both heartbreaking and absurd... a tragicomic tale

a joy to read

An exceptional tale of a family in crisis . . . at once intimate and sweeping, profoundly subtle and yet remarkably affecting, the story reminds the reader that public catastrophe interrupts myriad smaller, but no less devastating, private troubles, magnifying their consequences and obstructing their resolution. This is a mesmerizing, heart-wrenching story of love and regret, but ultimately, and most assuredly, the healing generosity of hope. I couldn't put it down. I read the end on an airplane, and had to hide my tears from the other passengers.

Full of delicate imagery drawing on Japanese nature and culture, this is a rich, romantic story, brimming with restrained emotion – with a twist that will take your breath away. Superb.

This is a truly wonderful novel about the intricacies of parenting, regret, forgiveness and the exquisite pain of love

A gorgeous book

Barrett reworks Kafka’s family drama as an urban odyssey and make a stunning success of it.