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The Women
Not yet published
Expected 27 Oct 26A portrait of China’s century through the story of the women in the author life, from the highly acclaimed novelist, twice shortlisted for the International Booker Prize
Part memoir and part literary nonfiction, The Women captures the harsh and unequal experience of being a woman in 1970s and 80s rural China. Written by the award winning author Yan Lianke, the book is both a tribute to the women who shaped his life and a sociological critique of China’s treatment of women. “In the countryside, the human being is a worker,” but rural women’s work is diminished, their hardship ignored. Through humor and tragedy, Lianke shares their story and reveals a side of Chinese life rarely accessed by the West.
Part memoir and part literary nonfiction, The Women captures the harsh and unequal experience of being a woman in 1970s and 80s rural China. Written by the award winning author Yan Lianke, the book is both a tribute to the women who shaped his life and a sociological critique of China’s treatment of women. “In the countryside, the human being is a worker,” but rural women’s work is diminished, their hardship ignored. Through humor and tragedy, Lianke shares their story and reveals a side of Chinese life rarely accessed by the West.
- GenresChina
272 pages, Paperback
Expected publication October 27, 2026
About the author
Yan Lianke
83 books528 followersYan Lianke (simplified Chinese: 阎连科; traditional Chinese: 閻連科; pinyin: Yán Liánkē; Wade–Giles: Yen Lien-k'e, born 1958) is a Chinese writer of novels and short stories based in Beijing. His work is highly satirical, which has resulted in some of his most renowned works being banned.
He started writing in 1978 and his works include: Xia Riluo (夏日落), Serve the People (为人民服务), Enjoyment (受活), and Dream of Ding Village (丁庄梦). He has also published more than ten volumes of short stories. Enjoyment, which was published in 2004, received wide acclaim in China. His literature has been published in various nations, and some of his works have been banned in China.
(Wikipedia)
He started writing in 1978 and his works include: Xia Riluo (夏日落), Serve the People (为人民服务), Enjoyment (受活), and Dream of Ding Village (丁庄梦). He has also published more than ten volumes of short stories. Enjoyment, which was published in 2004, received wide acclaim in China. His literature has been published in various nations, and some of his works have been banned in China.
(Wikipedia)
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Displaying 1 - 7 of 7 reviews
August 21, 2026
I came to this book already a fan of Yan Lianke's writing, having loved Three Brothers — his earlier memoir about his father's generation — so my expectations going in were high. For the most part, The Women delivered, though it's a book that takes some adjusting to structurally. It moves from intimate family recollections into broader philosophical territory about womanhood as a social construct, then into loosely connected regional stories, before closing with a tender coda about his granddaughter. That range is ambitious, but it also means the book doesn't always feel like a single, cohesive work.
The family chapters are, without question, the heart of the collection. Yan writes about his sisters, aunts, and mother with such warmth and respect that I felt like I knew these women myself, despite never having met them — the section about gathering coal with his second sister especially stands out as the strongest piece in the whole book. That said, there's something worth sitting with in how he refers to them: never by name, only as "first sister," "second sister," "first aunt," and so on. It's hard to know whether that's a deliberate device or an unconscious echo of the very patriarchal erasure he's trying to examine — either way, it nags at you.
To his credit, Yan seems aware of the limits of his own perspective. He's upfront that he's telling these stories as a man who can't fully access these women's inner lives, and he leans on quotes from feminist writers and interviews with women from his region to broaden the lens beyond his own. It mostly works — though I found myself wishing he'd gone further and let his own sisters and aunts speak in their own words rather than filtering everything through his memory of them.
The section I'm most torn on is "The Third Sex." There's a lot of genuinely interesting material in it, and I ended up highlighting more from this chapter than any other, but the central premise — female otherness as a kind of "third sex" — never fully clicked for me. A few reference points, like the nod to Saramago's Blindness, also gave me pause. Still, the ideas raised there stayed with me even where I wasn't sure I agreed with the framing.
The book's final piece, a short afterword about Yan taking his granddaughter to the park, is a lovely way to close things out — quiet and grounding after everything that comes before.
Structural unevenness aside, this is a thoughtful, often moving collection, and the translation reads beautifully. I'd recommend it to anyone interested in women's experience in modern China, and in the imperfect, self-aware ways a man might try to bear witness to lives he can only partly understand. I'm already looking forward to rereading it with a pen in hand.
The family chapters are, without question, the heart of the collection. Yan writes about his sisters, aunts, and mother with such warmth and respect that I felt like I knew these women myself, despite never having met them — the section about gathering coal with his second sister especially stands out as the strongest piece in the whole book. That said, there's something worth sitting with in how he refers to them: never by name, only as "first sister," "second sister," "first aunt," and so on. It's hard to know whether that's a deliberate device or an unconscious echo of the very patriarchal erasure he's trying to examine — either way, it nags at you.
To his credit, Yan seems aware of the limits of his own perspective. He's upfront that he's telling these stories as a man who can't fully access these women's inner lives, and he leans on quotes from feminist writers and interviews with women from his region to broaden the lens beyond his own. It mostly works — though I found myself wishing he'd gone further and let his own sisters and aunts speak in their own words rather than filtering everything through his memory of them.
The section I'm most torn on is "The Third Sex." There's a lot of genuinely interesting material in it, and I ended up highlighting more from this chapter than any other, but the central premise — female otherness as a kind of "third sex" — never fully clicked for me. A few reference points, like the nod to Saramago's Blindness, also gave me pause. Still, the ideas raised there stayed with me even where I wasn't sure I agreed with the framing.
The book's final piece, a short afterword about Yan taking his granddaughter to the park, is a lovely way to close things out — quiet and grounding after everything that comes before.
Structural unevenness aside, this is a thoughtful, often moving collection, and the translation reads beautifully. I'd recommend it to anyone interested in women's experience in modern China, and in the imperfect, self-aware ways a man might try to bear witness to lives he can only partly understand. I'm already looking forward to rereading it with a pen in hand.
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August 20, 2026The Women is an intimate and deeply significant work that uses the lives of women in Yan Lianke’s own world to illuminate a much larger story: the social history of China across a period of extraordinary hardship and transformation.
Part memoir and part literary nonfiction, the book focuses particularly on the harsh realities experienced by women in rural China during the 1970s and 1980s. Rather than approaching that history through statistics or political abstraction, Lianke brings it to life through the women whose labor, sacrifices, and resilience shaped his own upbringing and experience.
One of the book’s most compelling dimensions is its examination of invisible labor. In a society where rural life could reduce a person to their capacity as a worker, women often carried enormous burdens while receiving little recognition for what they contributed. Their hardship could become normalized and their labor diminished, even as families and communities depended upon it.
Lianke's approach appears to balance humor and tragedy, allowing these women to emerge not merely as victims of their circumstances but as complex human beings with personalities, relationships, endurance, and stories of their own.
The personal perspective also gives the book unusual emotional power. By writing about the women who shaped his life, Lianke turns social critique into something deeply human. Their individual experiences become a lens through which readers can consider gender, poverty, labor, family, culture, and the changing face of modern China.
For Western readers in particular, the book offers an opportunity to encounter aspects of rural Chinese life that are rarely represented with this degree of personal intimacy.
The author's literary reputation further strengthens the book's potential. As an award-winning novelist and a writer twice shortlisted for the International Booker Prize, Lianke already brings substantial literary credibility to a work that is both personal and socially observant.
With publication expected on October 27, 2026, The Women has a timely opportunity to build anticipation among readers of literary nonfiction, memoir, women's history, Chinese literature, and international writing.
Ultimately, the book's strongest hook is its scale: a portrait of an entire century of China told through the women whose lives, labor, suffering, and resilience often went unseen.
Part memoir and part literary nonfiction, the book focuses particularly on the harsh realities experienced by women in rural China during the 1970s and 1980s. Rather than approaching that history through statistics or political abstraction, Lianke brings it to life through the women whose labor, sacrifices, and resilience shaped his own upbringing and experience.
One of the book’s most compelling dimensions is its examination of invisible labor. In a society where rural life could reduce a person to their capacity as a worker, women often carried enormous burdens while receiving little recognition for what they contributed. Their hardship could become normalized and their labor diminished, even as families and communities depended upon it.
Lianke's approach appears to balance humor and tragedy, allowing these women to emerge not merely as victims of their circumstances but as complex human beings with personalities, relationships, endurance, and stories of their own.
The personal perspective also gives the book unusual emotional power. By writing about the women who shaped his life, Lianke turns social critique into something deeply human. Their individual experiences become a lens through which readers can consider gender, poverty, labor, family, culture, and the changing face of modern China.
For Western readers in particular, the book offers an opportunity to encounter aspects of rural Chinese life that are rarely represented with this degree of personal intimacy.
The author's literary reputation further strengthens the book's potential. As an award-winning novelist and a writer twice shortlisted for the International Booker Prize, Lianke already brings substantial literary credibility to a work that is both personal and socially observant.
With publication expected on October 27, 2026, The Women has a timely opportunity to build anticipation among readers of literary nonfiction, memoir, women's history, Chinese literature, and international writing.
Ultimately, the book's strongest hook is its scale: a portrait of an entire century of China told through the women whose lives, labor, suffering, and resilience often went unseen.
Review of advance copy received from NetGalley
First of all, thank you to Netgalley and Verso books for allowing me to read this book early. I have already pre-odered it so I can have a physical copy on my shelf, but I was so excited to read this. This was definitely my most anticipated release of 2026.
In the preface of this book, Yan describes how long he waited to write this book after the successful publication of his book Three Brothers, which is about him and his father's generation. Three Brothers was one of my favorite books when I read it last year, so I was extremely looking forward to reading The Women, and it did not disappoint.
Along with even more anecdotes about Yan's life growing up, we also get a lot of insight into what life is like/was like for women in a small village in Henan. I think Yan also does a good job not speaking over women and feminist voices. He quotes a lot of prominent feminist authors and interviewed quite a few women for this book as well. There are a few lines here and there that had me raising my eyebrows (like the quote from Blindness by Saramago), but overall I still think this is a moving and thought-provoking collection of essays.
There are several parts to this book, but in my opinion the family member chapters were the most captivating. I loved reading about Yan's relationship with his sisters, his aunts, and his mother. You can really feel how highly he regards these family members in the way he discusses them. Despite never having met his aunts, I feel close with them. On the other hand, The Third Sex was the chapter that I'm most unsure about. I like a lot of the things Yan has to say in this chapter, but the premise confused me a bit. Maybe I just didn't understand the concept of the third sex being "female otherness". At the same time, I appreciated a lot of the discussions and points brought up in this section, so my overall impression is still positive. I saved the most quotes from this part.
The last story in The Women is a short afterword about Yan taking his granddaughter to the park and I think it is the perfect story to end the collection.
Overall I loved this. I think the translation is great, the content is great, and I can't wait to read it again and annotate it.
In the preface of this book, Yan describes how long he waited to write this book after the successful publication of his book Three Brothers, which is about him and his father's generation. Three Brothers was one of my favorite books when I read it last year, so I was extremely looking forward to reading The Women, and it did not disappoint.
Along with even more anecdotes about Yan's life growing up, we also get a lot of insight into what life is like/was like for women in a small village in Henan. I think Yan also does a good job not speaking over women and feminist voices. He quotes a lot of prominent feminist authors and interviewed quite a few women for this book as well. There are a few lines here and there that had me raising my eyebrows (like the quote from Blindness by Saramago), but overall I still think this is a moving and thought-provoking collection of essays.
There are several parts to this book, but in my opinion the family member chapters were the most captivating. I loved reading about Yan's relationship with his sisters, his aunts, and his mother. You can really feel how highly he regards these family members in the way he discusses them. Despite never having met his aunts, I feel close with them. On the other hand, The Third Sex was the chapter that I'm most unsure about. I like a lot of the things Yan has to say in this chapter, but the premise confused me a bit. Maybe I just didn't understand the concept of the third sex being "female otherness". At the same time, I appreciated a lot of the discussions and points brought up in this section, so my overall impression is still positive. I saved the most quotes from this part.
The last story in The Women is a short afterword about Yan taking his granddaughter to the park and I think it is the perfect story to end the collection.
Overall I loved this. I think the translation is great, the content is great, and I can't wait to read it again and annotate it.
September 28, 2026
Thank you to NetGalley and Verso Books for providing me with an ARC of this book. All opinions are my own.
“The Women” is a thoughtful and moving memoir of the women that shaped Yan Lianke. At its best, it’s a sharp reflection on the role of women in modern China and the invisibility and tedium of their lives. At the same time, the writing reveals the limitations of a book written by a man: the way so much of his sisters, aunts and mother’s life—their decisions, motivations, and inner lives—are hidden from him, intentionally or otherwise.
Lianke makes the intentional decision not to interview the surviving women in his family, but rather to reflect on his memory as it is. I struggled with this decision, because I feel as if the same lack of agency afforded to these women in their lives is denied to them in their remembrance on the page. There are parts of the story where Lianke venerates the resilience and strength of his mother and other women. Certainly, they were strong—but what other choice did they have? Lianke does reflect on this lack of agency but I feel like it is impossible to read this story as anything more than yet another story about women written by a man.
At the same time that I struggled with this aspect of the book, I also deeply appreciated the story that was being told. In such a transformative period of China’s history when so many people living in rural areas were illiterate, it’s extremely valuable to have the stories of these women preserved. The final section of the book which included several local stories felt a bit abrupt—I did enjoy reading them but wished the structure was a bit cleaner and kept the spotlight on the family members.
“The Women” is a thoughtful and moving memoir of the women that shaped Yan Lianke. At its best, it’s a sharp reflection on the role of women in modern China and the invisibility and tedium of their lives. At the same time, the writing reveals the limitations of a book written by a man: the way so much of his sisters, aunts and mother’s life—their decisions, motivations, and inner lives—are hidden from him, intentionally or otherwise.
Lianke makes the intentional decision not to interview the surviving women in his family, but rather to reflect on his memory as it is. I struggled with this decision, because I feel as if the same lack of agency afforded to these women in their lives is denied to them in their remembrance on the page. There are parts of the story where Lianke venerates the resilience and strength of his mother and other women. Certainly, they were strong—but what other choice did they have? Lianke does reflect on this lack of agency but I feel like it is impossible to read this story as anything more than yet another story about women written by a man.
At the same time that I struggled with this aspect of the book, I also deeply appreciated the story that was being told. In such a transformative period of China’s history when so many people living in rural areas were illiterate, it’s extremely valuable to have the stories of these women preserved. The final section of the book which included several local stories felt a bit abrupt—I did enjoy reading them but wished the structure was a bit cleaner and kept the spotlight on the family members.
Review of advance copy received from NetGalley
I found this book to be affecting and gentle. I loved the sections about family. They felt organically written and the sentiments were an interesting insight into the culture Yan Lianke lived through and grew up in. A cosy read.
Review of advance copy received from Indie Reviewers
Review pending in FOREWORD BOOK REVIEWS.
Review of advance copy received from NetGalley
thank you for the ARC. i feel honoured to have read this story. it really touched me. i would place this book into the hands of every woman i know. so beautifully written too.
Displaying 1 - 7 of 7 reviews