(Fiction; Random House, 2009)
The Vagrants presents a kaleidoscopic view of the complex political and social landscape of the late 1970s, when China was rethinking the heritage of the Cultural Revolution. The story begins on the day when Gu Shan, a former member of the Red Guards now condemned as a counterrevolutionary, is to be executed in front of a crowd at a sports arena. The spectacle will affect Gu Shan’s parents, her former comrades, and strangers whose lives will be shaped by whether or not they support her execution.
