Set in 1967, at the peak of the Mao cult,
is a beautifully told, wickedly daring story about the forbidden love affair between Liu Lian, the young, pretty wife of a powerful Division Commander in Communist China, and her household’s lowly servant, Wu Dawang. When Liu Lian establishes a rule for her orderly that he is to attend to her needs whenever the household’s wooden Serve the People! sign is removed from its usual place, the orderly vows to obey. What follows is a remarkable love story and a profound and deliciously comic satire on Mao’s famous slogan and the political and sexual taboos of his regime. As life is breathed into the illicit sexual affair, Yan Lianke brilliantly captures how the Model Soldier Wu Dawang becomes an eager collaborator with the restless and demanding Liu Lian, their actions inspired by primitive passions that they are only just discovering. Originally banned in China, and the first work from Yan Lianke to be translated into English,
brings us the debut of one of the most important authors writing from inside China today.

新经典文库·长篇小说系列。　　本书采用了在中国现代长篇小说中前所未有的“倒放”式文本。小说中讲述了一个闻所未闻的惨烈的故事，把苦难写得质感透明，把深厚与天真糅成了至纯和心酸，从而写出了中国农民的一部心灵宗教史、生命救赎史。　　全文由五卷组成，依次逆向地回溯故事进程，即第一卷叙述主人公司马蓝的死亡过程，第二卷说司马蓝担任村长后的奋斗经历，第三卷说青年司马蓝如何当上村长，第四卷讲少年司马蓝成为同辈中的领袖，第五卷说司马蓝的童年生活及其出生，中间穿插几位前任村长和其他有关人物的故事。认真阅读这部小说的读者，都会被小说中的严峻的生死问题所震撼。