Susan's Smile, all about envy

Writer Ye Zhaoyan is bent on a switch, after depicting "the reality of myth" in Hou Yi, 2006, a novel that reconstructs the ancient Chinese tale of Chang E and her self-banishment to the moon.

The idea finally materialized last month in Susan's Smile, a novel of "the myth of reality".

Ye, 53, started writing in 1980 and has produced a literary corpus of over 4 million words. In previous writings, he has demonstrated his knack for knitting intriguing and often bizarre love stories into profound historical contexts.