WAKING UP TO A MASTERPIECE

Forged in a moment of madness and nearly derailed by a debilitating illness, A Yi battled against all the odds to see his first full-length novel make it into print. Yang Yang reports.

Chinese writer A Yi often appears ill at ease when talking at public events. Reading from a prepared speech in a low voice, his apparent lack of self-confidence seems to belie the fact that he has been hailed as one of the best writers of his generation by leading literary figures.

In his own words, the writer is often wracked by feelings of "self-doubt" and this accompanied him right up until the release of his only novel to date, Zao Shang Jiu Dian Jiao Xing Wo (Wake Me Up at 9 AM), which was published in January.