I Did Not Kill My Husband: A Novel

Description

Li Xuelian, married to Qin Yuhe, is pregnant with their second child. Happy news? Not in China, with its one-child policy. It is a crime. What is she to do? Her only option is divorcing before the second child is born. "Once the baby has entered into the household registry, we'll marry again. The baby will be born after the divorce, so we'll each have one child when we marry again. No law says couples with one child can't marry." Perfect! Except that after the divorce, Qin marries . . . another woman who is expecting a baby. Mad with rage, Li runs to the judge, begging him to declare the divorce a sham so she may remarry and truly divorce the fool! Liu's politically charged plot reads like an absurd and hilarious comedy, but couched in his fiction is a harsh indictment of China's one-child law and a head-on critique of China's corrupt system. I Did Not Kill My Husband is storytelling and satire of the highest order, sharp-edged and ironic. Skyhorse Publishing, as well as our Arcade, Yucca, and Good Books imprints, are proud to publish a broad range of books for readers interested in fiction-novels, novellas, political and medical thrillers, comedy, satire, historical fiction, romance, erotic and love stories, mystery, classic literature, folklore and mythology, literary classics including Shakespeare, Dumas, Wilde, Cather, and much more. While not every title we publish becomes a New York Times bestseller or a national bestseller, we are committed to books on subjects that are sometimes overlooked and to authors whose work might not otherwise find a home.

Liu Zhenyun is the author of six bestselling novels, including I Did Not Kill My Husband, which sold 1.2 million copies. His long and short fiction has won numerous prizes in China and Hong Kong and has been translated into several languages. He won the Mao Dun Literature Prize in 2011. The films based on his novels include the blockbuster Cell Phone, directed by Feng Xiaogang. Howard Goldblatt, a Guggenheim fellow, has taught modern Chinese literature in the West for the past twenty years. Translator of Mo Yan 2012 Nobel Prize winner for literature he is the foremost translator of contemporary Chinese literature. Sylvia Li-Chun Lin, a former professor at the University of Notre Dame, is a full-time translator and writer.

"Government fear of chaos is omnipresent in this expertly translated political farce . . . an intimate portrait of the local politics that matter so greatly in China." The New York Times "A masterful tale that will make you laugh even as you despair . . . Wickedly subtle satire." Kirkus Reviews (Starred review) "A satirical tale that nimbly examines political corruption in China." Publishers Weekly "Government fear of chaos is omnipresent in this expertly translated political farce . . . an intimate portrait of the local politics that matter so greatly in China." The New York Times "A masterful tale that will make you laugh even as you despair . . . Wickedly subtle satire." Kirkus Reviews (Starred review) "A satirical tale that nimbly examines political corruption in China." Publishers Weekly