“A time-tempered, compassionate reflection on how an ordinary life—shaped by hardship, hope, and conscience—reveals the quiet power of human goodness amid the vast currents of fate.”
—Xinran, author of Sky Burial, The Promise: Love and Loss in Modern China, and The Good Women of China: Hidden Voices
Does one believe in fate? Is fate family? Are blood ties fate? Can striving relentlessly change one’s fate? If we are destined to be ordinary, what should we do? Abandoned by my parents, I dropped out of university and struggled in Shenzhen; driven to rage by my family, I could not shirk my responsibility; I found love and friendship, but in return, fate demanded my life...
My Destiny is author Liang Xiaosheng’s first novel after winning the Mao Dun Literature Prize for fiction. It tells the remarkable stories of the struggles of ordinary people and the migration from rural to urban life.
In his signature style of realism, Liang tells the story of the struggles of two young people, depicting the profound entanglement between human nature and fate, presenting the multi-dimensional dialectic of misfortune and happiness, and pondering what constitutes a home and what constitutes a person. The fate of ordinary people reflects the changes of the times, records the modernization of rural China, and also foreshadows what kind of future we can have.
A bestseller in China, this English language edition has been translated by renowned scholar Howard Goldblatt. It is sure to introduce Western readers to Liang’s unique talent and literary style, whose work continues to influence readers in China and worldwide.
