Stories of the Sahara

by Sanmao, Mike Fu (Translator)

Overview

The book that has captivated millions of Chinese readers, translated into English for the very first time.

'Hypnotic . . . A record of one person's fierce refusal to follow a path laid down for her by the rest of the world' Tash Aw, Paris Review Books of the Year

Sanmao: author, adventurer, pioneer. Born in China in 1943, she moved from Chongqing to Taiwan, Spain to Germany, the Canary Islands to Central America, and, for several years in the 1970s, to the Sahara.

Stories of the Sahara invites us into Sanmao's extraordinary life in the desert: her experiences of love and loss, freedom and peril, all told with a voice as spirited as it is timeless.

At a period when China was beginning to look beyond its borders, Sanmao fired the imagination of millions and inspired a new generation. With an introduction by Sharlene Teo, author of Ponti, this is an essential collection from one of the twentieth century's most iconic figures.

'Every story conveys Sanmao's infectious capacity for wonder' Sharlene Teo, author of Ponti

'Has endured for generations of young Taiwanese and Chinese women' New York Times

'Ground-breaking' Geographical

'A remarkable and brave book. Sanmao was a freewheeling feminist who broke all the rules and did so with a gleeful, mischievous smile' David Eimer, South China Morning Post

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781408881866
Publisher:	Bloomsbury Publishing
Publication date:	11/14/2019
Sold by:	Barnes & Noble
Format:	eBook
Pages:	416
File size:	958 KB

About the Author

Sanmao, born Chen Mao Ping, was a novelist, writer, educator and translator. Born in China in 1943, she grew up in Taiwan. She studied in Taiwan, Spain and Germany before moving to the Sahara desert with her Spanish husband, a scuba diver and underwater engineer. In 1976, she gained fame with the publication of her first book, Stories of the Sahara. Her husband died while diving in 1979, and Sanmao returned to Taiwan the following year. From 1976 until her death in 1991, she published more than twenty books.

Mike Fu is a Brooklyn-based writer, translator and editor. He is a cofounder and editor of The Shanghai Literary Review, a transnational English language journal for arts and literature, and the assistant dean for global initiatives at Parsons School of Design.
Sanmao, born Chen Ping, was a novelist, writer and translator. Born in China, she grew up in Taiwan. After a stint in Europe, she moved to the Sahara desert with her Spanish husband, a scuba diver and underwater engineer. She committed suicide in 1991.
Mike Fu is a Brooklyn-based writer, translator, and editor. Along with colleagues in Asia and Europe, he coedits The Shanghai Literary Review, a biannual English language publication of original artwork, writing, and translation. He received his MA in East Asian languages and cultures from Columbia University and MFA in creative writing and literary translation from Queens College, City University of New York. He is assistant dean for global initiatives at Parsons School of Design.

Table of Contents

A Knife on a Desert Night 1

A Desert Diner 17

The Marriage Chronicles 25

Apothecary 39

Child Bride 51

Night in the Wasteland 61

The Desert Bathing Spectacle 77

Looking for Love 89

Nice Neighbours 103

Dilettante Fishermen 115

Seed of Death 131

A Ladder 149

Hearth and Home 169

My Great Mother-in-Law 207

Stealing Souls 231

Sergeant Salva 245

Hitchhikers 263

The Mute Slave 285

Crying Camels 307

Lonesome Land 355

Milestones in the Life of Sanmao 381

Translator's Note 385

Notes 391

Translator's Acknowledgements 393

Editorial Reviews

"A hypnotic meditation on love and loneliness in a foreign place. Writing with frankness and vulnerability, Sanmao’s constant questioning of her insecurities and flaws is remarkably human, and nothing remains beyond the boundaries of her probing eye . . . Mike Fu’s gorgeous translation brings to live Sanmao’s evocative descriptions of the Sahrawi communities in which she lives, along with her wit and her gift for capturing life’s absurdities. Stories of the Sahara is a record of one person’s fierce refusal to follow a path laid down for her by the rest of the world, but it is also a celebration of the complexities of being an outsider, and ultimately, an ode to freedom." - The Paris Review, Best Books of the Year

"Stories of the Sahara has endured for generations of young Taiwanese and Chinese women yearning for independence from conservative social norms . . . Her prose, which oscillates between memoir and fiction, has a laconic elegance that echoes the Beat poets. It can also be breezy, a remarkable quality at a time when her homeland, Taiwan, was under martial law." - The New York Times

"Marvelous . . . Sanmao is a meticulous observer and affecting raconteur. Her voice speaks from the page, as if written yesterday rather than almost 50 years ago—an effect, it must be admitted, which might in part be an artifact of the earnest translation by Mike Fu . . . If any work could be described as having been lovingly translated, it is this one." - Asian Review of Books

"Available in English for the first time, these semiautobiographical stories by a cherished Taiwanese writer . . . weave the quotidian and the historical into a single narrative: the wedding of a child bride; legends of evil spirits, heard while camping at night; rising hostility to both Spanish rule and the looming influence of Morocco." - The New Yorker

"Sanmao’s] delightful travelogues feel like fables, depicting both the humdrum realities of desert living—the goats that keep falling through the roof of her house, the quirks of the native Sahrawis she and her husband, José, reside with—and the high adventure of escaping quicksand, seeing UFOs, and getting ill perhaps from a possibly cursed necklace." - The Atlantic

"Stories of the Sahara mark[s] the beginning of Sanmao’s glorious, prodigious literary career … Beyond her infectious energy, Sanmao reveals keen insight, astute self-awareness, and the rare glimpses of unsettled loneliness." - Christian Science Monitor

"[Sanmao’s life] was a blueprint for how legends are born . . . She was adventurous and a home-body, brave and insecure, funny and serious." - PopFam

"A role model far ahead of her time . . . Now, mainland-born and Taiwanese-raised Sanmao is taking her rightful place in the pantheon of female travel writers with the English-language publication of Stories of the Sahara . . . Her confessional style, which can be painfully honest but is always self-aware and shot through with humour, fits perfectly in the age of #MeToo, despite the book being written five decades earlier . . . Her candidness about her marriage and life, along with her love of challenging convention, explains why Sanmao has been a heroine for Chinese women . . . Sanmao deserves all the praise, even if it has been a long time coming" - David Eimer, South China Morning Post

"[Stories of the Sahara] revives the spirit of this international hero, and reminds us why [Sanmao] still symbolizes strength and adventure across the world." - Character Media

"Ground-breaking . . . Sanmao wrote breezily but she captured the complexities of ‘learning the art of living here’ . . . A compelling tale of someone who was enraptured but uneasy, and Sanmao’s pluck is admirable" - Geographical

"Brilliantly translated." - India Today

"Riveting reissue aged like a good wine . . . A valuable record" - Irish Times

"An enduring cultural icon and figure of quixotic fascination . . . Every story conveys Sanmao's infectious capacity for wonder" - Sharlene Teo, author of 'Ponti'

"Sanmao’s vivid descriptions of Sahara life, with its assortment of local personalities and unexpected twists, make an engaging read, but an undeniable part of the book’s enduring appeal is Sanmao herself. Stories of the Sahara offers a glimpse into not only an underreported time and place, but also the making of a cultural icon." - Columbia University Weatherhead East Asian Institute

"Sanmao, the nomadic Taiwanese writer, storms her way into the English language with the travelogue that defined her restlessness and raw talent for narrative: Stories of the Sahara, now appearing via the dedicated and sensitive translation of Mike Fu." - Asymptote Journal

"As a Chinese woman born in 1943, Sanmao was a pioneering global citizen. These 20 essays about living in one of the harshest areas of the world in the 1970s are testimony to her audacity and courage." - Christian Science Monitor

From the Publisher