Modern Chinese author, in the western world most known for his novel Red Sorghum (which was turned into a movie by the same title). Often described as the Chinese Franz Kafka or Joseph Heller.
Mo Yan (莫言) is a pen name and means don't speak. His real name is Guan Moye (simplified Chinese: 管谟业; traditional Chinese: 管謨業; pinyin: Guǎn Móyè).
He has been awarded the Nobel Prize in Literature 2012 for his work which "with hallucinatory realism merges folk tales, history and the contemporary". Among the works highlighted by the Nobel judges were Red Sorghum (1987) and Big Breasts & Wide Hips (2004), as well as The Garlic Ballads.
So, I did a thing. After, like, a zillion years of only reading books in English and feeling my Chinese skills get all dusty. 这本书很好读,莫言的语言对我来讲总有一种特殊的吸引力。在巴黎的火车上读完这本和巴黎完全无关的书,下一本大概是要看看和巴黎相关的书了吧