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第九个寡妇

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As one of the most glamorous female characters created by Yan Geling, Wang Putao is powerful and aggressive, persevering and charming and her kindheartedness and tolerance makes her surpass all disputes of interests in this world. The novel develops from the gap between Putao's filial piety to father-in-law as a child bride and her strong sexual passion and love affairs with different men as a widow to describe the bright human nature and reflect the real energy and origin of the folk. 中王葡萄是严歌苓笔下最光彩照人的女性角色之一,强大而嚣张、坚忍而娇媚,其浑然不分的仁爱与包容一切的宽厚使其超越了人世间一切利害之争。小蜕从葡萄以童养媳身份掩护公爹尽孝,与作为寡妇以强烈情欲和不同男人偷欢之间的落差展开,写出了人性的灿烂,体现了民间大地真正的能量和本原。

340 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 2006

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About the author

Geling Yan

83 books231 followers
Geling Yan (嚴歌苓) is one of the most acclaimed novelists and screenwriters writing in the Chinese language today and a well-established writer in English. Born in Shanghai, she served with the People's Liberation Army (PLA) during the Cultural Revolution, starting at age twelve as a dancer in an entertainment troupe.

After serving for over a decade with the PLA (including tours in Tibet and as a war correspondent during the Sino-Vietnam border conflict), Ms. Yan was discharged with a rank equivalent to Lieutenant Colonel. She published her first novel in 1986 and ever since has produced a steady stream of novels, short stories, novellas, essays and scripts. Her best-known novels in English are The Secret Talker, published by HarperCollins; Little Aunt Crane published in the UK by Random House affiliate Harvill Secker; The Flowers of War, published in the U.S. by The Other Press and elsewhere by Random House's Harvill Secker; The Banquet Bug (The Uninvited in its UK edition - written directly in English); and The Lost Daughter of Happiness, (translated by Cathy Silber) both published by Hyperion in the US and Faber & Faber in the UK. She has also published a novella and short story collection called White Snake and Other Stories, translated by Lawrence A. Walker and published by Aunt Lute Books.

Many of Geling Yan's works have been adapted for film and television, including internationally distributed films Xiu Xiu: The Sent-Down Girl (directed by Joan Chen) and Siao Yu (directed by Sylvia Chang; produced by Ang Lee). Chinese director Zhang Yimou made The Flowers of War, a big-budget film based on her work set during the 1937 Rape of Nanking, starring Academy Award winning actor Christian Bale; Coming Home 归来, based on her novel The Criminal Lu Yanshi 陆犯焉识, and One Second 一秒钟, also based on that novel.

Ms. Yan has also written numerous scripts based on her own and other authors' work, both in English and Chinese, including a script for a biopic on the iconic Peking opera star Mei Lanfang for director Chen Kaige (released as Forever Enthralled 梅兰芳) starring Leon Lai and Zhang Ziyi. She wrote the script for Dangerous Liaisons 危險關係, a Chinese-language film directed by South Korean director Hur Jin-ho and starring Zhang Ziyi, Jang Dong Gun and Cecilia Cheung. Her novel Fang Hua 芳华 is the basis a film of the same name (English title Youth) directed by Chinese director Feng Xiaogang 冯小刚. Her novel A City Called Macau 妈阁是座城 was made into a film directed by Li Shaohong 李少红, released in 2018.

Geling Yan a member of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences and of France's Société des Gens de Lettres. She is affiliated with the Hollywood screenwriters' union, Writers' Guild of America, west, and is a former member of the Chinese Writers' Association (中国作家协会).

Geling Yan went to the United States at the end of 1989 for graduate study. She holds a Master's in Fine Arts in Fiction Writing from Columbia College, Chicago. To date she has published over 40 books in various editions in Mainland China, Taiwan, Hong Kong, the US, the UK and elsewhere; has won over 30 literary and film awards; and has had her work adapted or written scripts for numerous film, TV and radio works. Her works have been translated into twenty-one languages: Arabic, Bulgarian, Czech, Dutch, English, Farsi, French, German, Hebrew, Italian, Japanese, Korean, Portuguese, Romanian, Russian, Spanish, Swedish, Thai, Uyghur, and Vietnamese, and her English-language novel The Banquet Bug/The Uninvited was translated into Chinese. She currently lives in Berlin, Germany.

She has been subject to an unofficial but effective ban in China since March 2020, when she wrote and promulgated an essay on the Chinese government's initial handling of COVID-19. Her future Chinese-language work will be published by her own publishing company, New Song Media GmbH.

For non-Chinese language publishing she is represented by Agence Astier-Pécher.

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Displaying 1 - 27 of 27 reviews
Profile Image for Gabriela O. Sáenz.
45 reviews
August 12, 2014
Mi nueva heroína: Wang Putao. Una mujer china hermosa en todo sentido. Un libro que no se olvida después de terminado.
Profile Image for Martha Faë.
Author 17 books20 followers
March 8, 2017
La edición que he leído tiene una sinopsis que engaña un poco. La novela trata principalmente (vamos, yo diría que en un 90%) sobre el momento en el que China pasa al comunismo. No es que no me interesara, pero no es lo que esperaba. Lectura recomendada solo si te interesa esa etapa de la historia de China.
2 reviews
March 13, 2025
Historia de Want Putao es sorprendente e inspiradora. No sólo narra la vida de una mujer fuerte e inteligente, y un pueblo que ve mil cambios y a la vez ninguno, sino que está hecho de manera sencilla. La lectura es muy fácil de seguir y los detalles que la autora da son necesarios, pero deliciosos. No se explaya en detalles minuciosos que nunca importarán. Si bien la historia a veces se desvía levemente del camino de Putao, es sólo para enriquecer más su historia.

Me encantó totalmente.

Lo único que podría no gustarme es el cambio drástico que se hace a veces, cuando se narra algo en el pasado, y cuando se devuelve al presente.
Profile Image for Lu.
44 reviews19 followers
June 11, 2011
El resumen de la contraportada te da una idea equivocada del libro.
Es la historia de China del nacionalismo al socialismo, contada desde la vida de Wang Putao, una huérfana de ojos grandes, mente práctica y poco convencional.
Profile Image for Song.
282 reviews527 followers
January 24, 2019
折腾,不停地折腾,没有原因地折腾,无休无止地折腾。日本人,八路,国民党,解放军,来了又走,走了又来,只是增添了尸体,鲜血,贫穷,饥饿和骨肉分离。

从豫中一个小村镇普通妇女的角度,看到的二十世纪中国革命史,大概就是这么一副模样。不要说故事主角在故事中感叹这些折腾的无休止和无意义,就是看书的读者,都快被折磨得把书扔掉了。转念一想,对于今天的我们这只是个故事,大不了可以把书合上,不看。但对于中国土地上亿万像故事主角葡萄那样的普通人而言,这些经历就是一辈子。无可逃避,无可选择,逆来顺受,用尽人生的智慧和勇气在夹缝中在阴暗处过点正常人过的日子。这样想想,确实有点悲从中来。

葡萄是善良的,美的,充满生命活力和女性欲望的普通人,寄托了作者的理想。她不懂得政治口号和阶级立场,也不懂得意识形态和运动斗争,她的生活只是遵守着普通得像土地一样古老的规则,爱亲人,敬爹娘,帮邻里,讲人情。仅仅是这些东西,就足以让葡萄成为那些年代真正像人的人。疯狂与平常的对比,实在不足以描写真实的万分之一。
Profile Image for Ewephoria.
19 reviews
May 24, 2022
A fascinating read with a protagonist who manages to stay positive no matter the circumstances - and considering all the difficulties that come up just trying to survive 1900's China, that's saying a lot. Overall the least depressing of this author's books that I've read so far, though more because of the attitude than the events. Definitely worth a read.
Profile Image for Nutsetoile.
76 reviews
September 24, 2021
性格决定命运,心态决定成败。看着书顺便把黑历史又都过了一遍……
Profile Image for Czen Trzynski.
16 reviews
September 30, 2022
感覺二大是個仙,侏儒們也算個神話般神奇的設定。葡萄無忌童言,返照出時代的荒誕。
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
Profile Image for Song Ngu.
198 reviews5 followers
March 17, 2023
Bi kịch, một thời đen tối trong lịch sử Trung Quốc.
15 reviews1 follower
June 29, 2023
Describe como se expandió el comunismo en China, la invasión de los japoneses antes Segunda Guerra Mundial,
La caída de Chiang Kai Shek y la subida de Mao Zedong, hasta su muerte
2 reviews
December 12, 2024
感人的小说。

记录了一位平凡的乡村女性从解放前到文革结束的经历。
Profile Image for Dan.
36 reviews
March 28, 2025
大学在书店看完的。王葡萄这个名字我还记得。我有种感觉就是看完这类书心里总是劲劲的,作为女人特别想争些什么。
16 reviews
May 14, 2018
Some stories just need to be told, there is no key takeaway, it is not supposed to teach anyone any lesson, the meaning of it is to be told and be remembered.
Profile Image for Paky.
1,037 reviews12 followers
November 15, 2022
Un libro que te traslada en el tiempo y en el espacio, a otra cultura y otra mentalidad, a una época crucial en la historia China. Fácil de leer, interesante para entender algo más de este país.
Profile Image for Dana Garcia.
83 reviews1 follower
April 8, 2025
Es una buena novela.

Tiene ciertos aspectos en los que me confundía por los saltos en el tiempo, que a veces pasan sin esperarlos. Sin embargo, al avanzar la lectura pude percibir más historia y empatía.

Si bien a la protagonista la ponen como una grande sin tantos sentimientos, también muestra está parte de ella tierna y sentimental, se nota un vínculo con su padre que al final llega a respetarlo de una gran fonda.

Está llena de simbolismos y se desarrolla en un contexto histórico, por ende, hubo cosas que no comprendí demasiado hasta que avance con la lectura. Aún así me parece una novela buena.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
Profile Image for Xovee Xu.
188 reviews
February 9, 2022
2021年5678月差不多吧于成都。收藏这本书本来是因为是在很久很久之前玩Summary加了一个人寒暄的时候问她喜欢读什么书呢她就推荐了这一本。严歌苓笔下的河南和河南人非常生动。结尾写二大的时候让人很感动。她是一个用“心”写作的作家,文笔也好。希望可以多看一些她的作品。
Profile Image for Ruofan.
59 reviews
May 17, 2018
My absolute favorite among all her novels. If you only read one book by her, I'd recommend this one. Just re-read it for the second time. Liked it as much.
Very anti-communist government; hence, was very surprised they made this book into a tv series. After watching it, understood --- they change the entire time frames of the novel, and placed lames elsewhere. Still, a big step, since I thought this book would be banned there.
Profile Image for Teresa Carreón Granados.
197 reviews
December 31, 2018
Geling Yan crea a un personaje, Wang Putao hermoso y que se crece conforme se va desarrollando la historia. Ayuda mucho a comprender una cultura tan lejana para Latinoamérica, como es la china. Impresionante la descripción del hambre que pasaron muchos años. El otro personaje central es Sun Huaiqing, padre-suegro de Putao, que le da grandes lecciones a Putao y de paso al lector atento. Muy recomendable.
9 reviews
May 1, 2016
vividly telling a story of a woman in the special period of time in the history of China, I got so touched about how cruel the situation it could be, and based on the stories my mother told me, they are all true, so much touched and admire the way writer describe all the details.
350 reviews
May 14, 2022
Una novela bien lograda, original y que narra la historia de 9 mujeres jóvenes en una pequeña aldea de China. El trasfondo es darnos a conocer la historia reciente de ese país, un país que se debate entre dos mundos y que la propia autora vive
Profile Image for Emily.
67 reviews12 followers
February 14, 2016
The story was told fast, and the characters seemed stuck in their stereotypes.
Profile Image for Shu Xiao.
168 reviews8 followers
March 23, 2016
严歌苓是妖精吗?怎么什么题材都能写哇!重点是都写得好。
Profile Image for Rocio Marin.
57 reviews31 followers
June 3, 2019
Absolutamente maravilloso y divertido. Tremendamente recomendable
Profile Image for Siyu.
86 reviews18 followers
April 14, 2019
感觉故事,语言都极好,整本书的对话和叙事都像是个河南人给我讲的一样。

书尾二大的故事真是让人一惊,久久不能平静。书的后面一章很随意地提到了王葡萄去集市上卖窗花,因为也写到过她卖杏饼,卖猪肉等等就没甚注意。也是快到结尾二大被藏到侏儒庙里回忆到铁脑他妈时,说起这三个男孩儿小时候都出过麻子,不过自葡萄被领养后,书里的却没说史屯人得天花。这个结尾真是了不得 - 然而开头那段也很是精彩。
Profile Image for Liya.
74 reviews
March 14, 2019
“走道磨棚门口,她看见老驴正慢慢围着磨道走。三十几年,它记得最熟的路是这没头没尾的路,是它给蒙上眼走的路。”
从一个童养媳+寡妇的角度来描写中国从抗日战争到改革开放这个动荡的年代。王葡萄和孙怀清活的清楚,隐忍,漂亮,只有这样才能直面自己得度过那段混乱癫狂的岁月。和小姨多鹤有异曲同工之处。严歌苓的又一次神来之作,还是带亲切的河南腔的。
65 reviews1 follower
June 25, 2019
Just finished this book translated into spanish. Delighted by the way it is written and by all that I learnt about China and its history.
Displaying 1 - 27 of 27 reviews

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