IN BRIEF (Page 21)

The Land, by Wang Yongli

This fiction by Wang Yongli, an editor with China Central Television, is set in modern China, and tells the story of how several university graduates overcome difficulties in doing their jobs as "village leaders", or cunguan, in remote mountainous areas, where they were sent for re-education. The book unfolds a picture of how underdeveloped some rural areas were back then, and how the young city-bred students struggled with limited resources to make the lives of villagers better. The Land also carries love stories of some of the students during their stay in the villages.

The Forgotten Room, by Lincoln Child