Three Horses

Name: Three Horses
ISBN: 9787533955663

Mo YanZhejiang Literature and Art Publishing House · ChinaApr 2022

3.9

Word count: 108K words
Chapters: 13
ISBN: 9787533955663

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Summary

Three Horses is a collection of the first twelve short stories Mo Yan, winner of the Nobel Prize in Literature, wrote when he began his writing career in the 1980s, and the first volume in the “Mo Yan Short Story Classics” series. These works include “The Cotton-Selling Road,” “Folk Music,” “Three Horses,” “The Stone Mill,” “Five Steamed Buns,” “A Spring Night of Drizzling Rain,” “The Ugly Soldier,” “Herding Ducks,” “The White Gull Leads the Way on the Spring Boat,” “Because of the Child,” “Black Beach,” and “Wind on the Island.” Through these short stories, readers can see the learning path of Mo Yan’s early writing—there are traces of Gabriel García Márquez, an underlying influence of Julio Cortázar, and at the same time the tradition of classical Chinese fiction represented by Strange Tales from a Chinese Studio. These stories reflect Mo Yan’s observations and thoughts on rural China in the 1980s, praising family affection while also excavating and criticizing cruel realities.

Editor's review

Three Horses is a collection of novellas of singular charm from Mo Yan’s career, gathering seven works including “Three Horses,” “Autumn Floods,” and “Distant Relatives.” Most of these stories were written in the 1980s and are important evidence of the early exploration and formation of Mo Yan’s literary style. Unlike the unrestrained flamboyance of Red Sorghum, this collection has a more restrained, mysterious, even slightly melancholy narrative temperament. Its central piece, “Three Horses,” uses a child’s perspective and the arrival and disappearance of a mysterious fine horse to sketch the hardships of village life and the subtle recesses of human nature in a particular era, full of allegorical color and symbolic meaning. With his signature sensory prose, Mo Yan weaves together the breath of the land, the spirituality of animals, and the tremors of the human heart, building a literary world that is both real and surreal. The value of this book lies in showing how the future Nobel laureate honed his distinctive “magical rural” narrative craft before fame; readers can clearly see how the literary genes that later made him world-renowned—vital life force, bizarre imagination, and deep insight into history and the folk spirit—sprouted from the soil. For readers who wish to understand the roots of Mo Yan’s literature and the evolution of his writing, this is an indispensable journey back to the source.

Who it's for

A good fit for

Readers eager to understand Mo Yan’s early creative style and literary sources
Readers interested in Chinese rural literature with magical realist color
Readers who enjoy the novella form and prefer compact texts rich in allegorical depth
Literary researchers or writers intending to analyze the formation of an author’s style

Not a good fit for

Readers expecting the grand epic sweep of Mo Yan’s long novels (such as Big Breasts and Wide Hips and Life and Death Are Wearing Me Out)
Readers seeking light entertainment or fast-paced plotting

Reading tips

Reading in order is recommended, with particular attention to “Three Horses” and “Autumn Floods,” to appreciate how Mo Yan in his early period fused personal experience with regional myth.
While reading, note Mo Yan’s extreme descriptions of sound, smell, and color, which are important foundations of his literary world.
Reading this book alongside Mo Yan’s later major novels allows a clearer perception of the continuities and variations in his artistic style.

About the publisher

Zhejiang Literature and Art Publishing House China · Founded in 1983

Zhejiang Literature and Art Publishing House is a Chinese publisher specializing in literary publishing. Judging from the 808 titles in the database, its publishing areas cover world classics, foreign literature, social novels, folk literature and classic works, as well as modern and contemporary literature and prose. Representative titles include foreign literary translations such as Anna Karenina, The Temple of the Golden Pavilion, In Praise of Shadows and The Complete Tragedies and Comedies of Shakespeare, alongside classic works by Lao She and Lu Xun such as Camel Xiangzi, Teahouse and Wandering. Its authors and translators include Leo Tolstoy, Cao Ying, Lao She, Yukio Mishima, Jun'ichirō Tanizaki and Zhu Shenghao. The press emphasizes the translation and introduction of classic texts and the compilation of native literary works, giving equal weight to Chinese and foreign literature. Owing to limited public information, its specific series and editorial policies are not elaborated here.

版权信息
售棉大路
民间音乐
三匹马
石磨
五个饽饽
春夜雨霏霏
丑兵
放鸭
白鸥前导在春船
因为孩子
黑沙滩
岛上的风

FAQ

What makes Three Horses unique compared with Mo Yan’s other works?

This book belongs to Mo Yan’s exploratory period; its style is more condensed and introspective than the later long novels. The blending of the magical and the real is already mature, but the narrative focuses more tightly on particular situations and inner tremors, with allegory and lyricism more prominent.

Is this book difficult to read?

As a collection of novellas, individual stories are moderate in length. But Mo Yan’s narrative mode consistently requires readers to engage their senses and associations and enter the distinctive aesthetic atmosphere he constructs. Readers unfamiliar with his language style may need some time to adjust.

Do the stories share common themes?

Yes. Most are rooted in Northeast Gaomi Township and together explore, amid historical change and the pressures of survival, the complex relationships between humans and nature (especially animals), humans and fate, and the coexistence of savagery and poetry in human nature, full of both hymns and elegies to the resilience of life.

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About the author

Mo Yan Author · Chinese · 1955

Mo Yan, whose original name is Guan Moye, was born on February 17, 1955, in Gaomi, Shandong, and is a major contemporary Chinese writer. He rose to fame in the 1980s with rural works such as Red Sorghum and Transparent Carrot, and his writing often blends magical realism with folk narrative traditions, focusing on rural society, historical memory, and the lives of ordinary people. His major works include Sandalwood Death, Big Breasts and Wide Hips, Frog, The Republic of Wine, Life and Death Are Wearing Me Out, Red Sorghum, and The Garlic Ballads. His works are commonly classified as social fiction, folk literature, and classics, and he has also written essays and miscellaneous pieces. In 2011 he won the Mao Dun Literature Prize for Frog, and in 2012 he received the Nobel Prize in Literature, becoming the first Chinese national to win that award.