The Kite of the North

The Kite of the North is a novel seven years in the making by Ge Liang and the second volume of his 'China Trilogy' on modern history and the rise and fall of nation and family; the first is The Bird of the South, which shares the series but no plot continuity. The novel begins with the coming-of-age of Lu Wensheng, a son of a Republican-era merchant family, and closes in the mid-twentieth century, lodging the turbulent history of the Republic within the fates of two families. The protagonist's growth forms the main line, with the marriage alliance between Lu Wensheng's family and a declining gentry family as its thread: the Lu family becomes connected to him through his adoption, and he later meets and falls in love with Feng Renzhen, daughter of that gentry family, intertwining the two clans behind them. Politicians, warlords, retired officials, literati, merchants, and opera performers—over a hundred Republican-era figures advance and retreat through the vicissitudes, their communities interwoven with majestic resonance. A life is like a kite's line: fate drifts without anchor, yet a person must have a core of their own. Wensheng is tempered through the great era's storms, moving and advancing until dust finally settles. Drawing on family memories from his grandfather's and maternal grandfather's lines, the author reconstructs northern ritual customs and marketplace life with meticulous brushwork, a portrait critics have called a Republican-era 'Along the River During the Qingming Festival.' Within the daily minutiae and the rise and decline of families hide the shadows of our past and future.