Faint praise for Great Plains

Farmers in Shaanxi who offer goats and pigs to the Mountain God at Spring Festival, writers in the northwestern province offer themselves to the Muse of Literature, says Gao Jianqun, a writer based in Xi'an, the provincial capital.

"Most of us fail, but we still carry on, hoping that a miracle will happen," says Gao, with his heavy dialect, in a telephone interview.

It seems Gao has half-succeeded with his new novel, Great Plains (Da Pingyuan), published by the Beijing October Arts & Literature Publishing House last October.