{"product_id":"2026200018758-secondhand-the-butterfly-and-other-stories","title":"The Butterfly And Other Stories","description":"\u003cp\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eCondition remarks:\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003eBook: Good\u003cbr\u003eJacket: No dust jacket\u003cbr\u003ePages: Good\u003cbr\u003eCondition remarks: Condition as shown in image\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eFrom one of China's most celebrated modern writers comes The Butterfly and Other Stories, a collection that captures the turbulent soul of a nation caught between revolution and renewal. Wang Meng, who himself endured years of political exile during the Cultural Revolution, presents a series of deeply human narratives chronicling the lives of ordinary Chinese citizens navigating ideology, memory, loss, and quiet resilience in the mid-to-late twentieth century. The title story, The Butterfly, follows a veteran cadre whose dreamlike reveries blur the boundaries between past and present, offering a profound meditation on identity and political disillusionment.\n\nWang Meng's prose is distinguished by its stream-of-consciousness technique — a bold and modernist departure from the socialist realism that dominated Chinese literature for decades — and his willingness to portray psychological interiority with unflinching honesty earned him both acclaim and controversy. These stories stand as vital documents of a society wrestling with the aftermath of ideological trauma, and Wang Meng's literary courage in giving voice to ambiguity and contradiction ensures that each tale lingers long after the final page is turned. For readers drawn to the intersection of personal fate and political history, this collection raises a question that haunts every story: what survives of the self when history demands everything?\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"Secondhand Stock","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":50573346832603,"sku":"2026200018758-SECONDHAND","price":10.0,"currency_code":"AUD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0523\/7646\/9701\/files\/b3c91f9a-90cd-4bda-a6e1-a7b2b5a3b356.png?v=1791168021","url":"https:\/\/bookgrocer.com\/products\/2026200018758-secondhand-the-butterfly-and-other-stories","provider":"Book Grocer","version":"1.0","type":"link"}