At the Summit of the Mountains

Name: At the Summit of the Mountains
ISBN: 9787020106936

Chi ZijianPeople's Literature Publishing House2015

No rating yet

Word count: 206K words
Chapters: 1
Series: At the Summit of the Mountains is a novel by Chi Zijian that took two years to write, published by People's Literature Publishing House in January 2015. It is another major novel following her Right Bank of the Argun and Snowy Crow. The novel has seventeen chapters, and the story takes place mainly in Longzhan Town amid the vast mountains of northern China: the butcher Xin Qiza; An Xue'er, known as "Little Immortal" and said to foresee life and death; the bailiff An Ping, who has carried out death sentences; the funeral home cosmetician Li Suzhen; and characters such as the embroiderer Jin Suxiu—people of different backgrounds and temperaments who nonetheless experience love and being loved, flight and revenge in the mortal world of the same remote border town. The book tells these seventeen stories in reverse chronology and then combines them into a single novel. It begins with the migration histories of the Xin, An, and Tang families, drawing out decades of rise and fall in a corner of northern China's countryside, and amid snowstorms, mountains, rivers, and old customs, shows how the lowly, each with a wounded heart, strive to live out human dignity. Chi Zijian has said that after finishing it she felt "sorrow knotted in her heart," and the book ends on the line "A world of goose-feather snow—who can hear whose call," carrying a piercing compassion within the vastness.
ISBN: 9787020106936

Report an error Find this book

Summary

In The Summit of the Mountains, a novel two years in the making, Chi Zijian delivers another major work of long fiction following The Right Bank of the Argun and White Snow, Black Crow. Comprising seventeen chapters, the novel unfolds chiefly in Longzhan, a remote town set amid the vast mountains of northern China. Its cast includes the butcher Xin Qiza; An Xue'er, known as "the Little Immortal" and said to foresee life and death; An Ping, a bailiff who has carried out executions; Li Suzhen, a mortuary cosmetician; and the embroiderer Jin Suxiu—figures of widely differing origins and temperaments who nonetheless pass through love and being loved, flight and revenge within the worldly bustle of this same borderland town. Told in reverse order, the seventeen stories are woven together into a single novel, beginning with the migration histories of the Xin, An, and Tang families and drawing out decades of rise and decline in a corner of the northern Chinese countryside. Amid snowstorms, mountains, rivers, and old customs, it shows how the lowly and humble, each carrying a wounded heart, strive to live with human dignity. Chi Zijian has said that after finishing the book she was "beset by a tangle of sorrows"; it ends on the line "a world of goose-feather snow—who can hear whose call?", a desolate close that carries a piercing compassion.

Editor's review

迟子建是在茅盾文学奖作品《额尔古纳河右岸》出版十年之后，又交出这部《群山之巅》。据出版方的说法，这部小说“比《额尔古纳河右岸》更苍茫雄浑，比《白雪乌鸦》更跌宕精彩”。它没有把目光投向宏大的英雄，而是落在龙山之翼的龙盏镇上：屠夫、法警、理容师、绣娘，这些人在群山之间过日子，也承受罪与罚、爱与失去。全书十七章各自独立成篇，又由同一小镇和几大家族的血脉串成一体，读来像一幅由许多碎片拼成的北国风俗长卷。迟子建写雪、写河、写山，笔致依旧诗意；写到伤痛与人性的幽暗时，也不回避。《收获》主编程永新称它“构建了一个独特、复杂、诡异而充满魅力的中国北世界”。如果你喜欢迟子建的《额尔古纳河右岸》，或者关注中国乡土普通人的尊严，这本书值得细读。

Who it's for

A good fit for

读过《额尔古纳河右岸》、喜欢迟子建笔调的读者
关注中国当代长篇小说与东北地域书写的文学爱好者
偏好群像叙事、愿意慢读小人物命运故事的读者
中文系学生与现当代文学研究者，可作乡土叙事文本细读

Not a good fit for

希望读到轻松明快、圆满结局故事的读者
不接受多线索、倒叙结构与人物频繁切换的读者
只想读短篇或快节奏类型小说的读者

Reading tips

先通读全书，再重读“斩马刀”“土地祠”等首尾章节，体会倒叙结构的呼应
可随手记下辛家、安家、唐家的人物关系，读中段时会清楚许多
读完正文后读后记《每个故事都有回忆》，能更好理解作者的写作动因
若与《额尔古纳河右岸》对读，可留意两部作品在处理历史与个人时的差异

About the publisher

People's Literature Publishing House China · Founded in 1951

People's Literature Publishing House publishes across classical literature, foreign literature, documentary writing and folk literature, with 492 titles in its catalogue. Representative books range from the Chinese classic Romance of the Three Kingdoms to Lao She's Teahouse and Longxu Ditch in the Selected Works of Lao She, as well as translated foreign literature such as Faulkner's The Sound and the Fury, Dante's Divine Comedy and Elena Ferrante's Neapolitan Novels, alongside documentary and fictional works including Primo Levi's If This Is a Man and João Guimarães Rosa's The Devil to Pay in the Backlands. Its authors include Chinese writers such as Lao She, translators such as Shen Emeri and Li Wenjun, and foreign authors such as James Wood. Overall, the house has a strong record in editing classic works and translating foreign literature, with a publishing character that bridges Chinese and foreign writing and values textual quality.

Chi Zijian Novels Series

FAQ

《群山之巅》和《额尔古纳河右岸》是同一本书吗？

不是。两者都是迟子建的长篇小说，但《额尔古纳河右岸》写鄂温克民族的迁徙与命运，曾获第七届茅盾文学奖；《群山之巅》于2015年出版，写的是北中国龙盏镇上一群普通人物的故事，两书题材与人物完全不同。

这本书有多少章，是连续故事吗？

正文共十七章，另有一篇后记《每个故事都有回忆》。各章可以看作独立的小故事，但人物与家族彼此牵连，合起来构成一部长篇，并非完全无关的短篇集。

读这本书需要先读迟子建的其他作品吗？

不需要。《群山之巅》故事自足，人物关系书中都有交代。不过若读过《额尔古纳河右岸》，会更容易体会她在东北地域书写上的一贯关怀。

这本书大概多少字，适合多久读完？

人民文学出版社2015年平装本约20.6万字、336页。按每天读四五十分钟计算，通常一两周可以读完；因人物多、线索杂，建议不要跳读。

Comments

Find this book

This site is an index: you start “Search all sources” in your browser, and the entries it lists all point to third-party sites; please judge their availability yourself.