基层迎检、开发纷争、征收税费、产业调整、征地“种房”、维权争利……“喧嚣”一词，释尽乡镇日常政治种种人事与结构交织碰撞的众声嘈杂。本书以后现代叙事策略，围绕基层政权、村级组织和农民在复杂的乡村权力场域中博弈共生的过程和状况，深度阐释了21世纪初中国中部地区某乡镇“乡域政治”的运作实践与支配逻辑。
本书出版十年来，获得学术界内外的广泛好评，被权威专家和普通读者誉为数十年来少见的以“抵近现场”“深度描写”的方式、以“比小说还精彩”的叙述来“复杂化理解”中国基层社会的作品。重读此书，不难发现，虽然它研究的是十多年前的乡镇，但是，对于“故事”背后种种复杂因素的颇有见地的理论探讨，让它在今天仍然极具启示。

In 1997 Belgian artist Francis Alys (b. 1959) created a performance work called "The Loop for InSITE", a biennial group exhibition held in Tijuana, Mexico. Addressing the idea of international borders and the contemporary ease/unease of global travel, Alys' contribution was a journey that started in Tijuana and ended in the nearby border town of San Diego - never, however, crossing the Mexico-U.S. border. The artist instead took the long way, skirting the Pacific rim from Mexico to Panama, Sydney, Bangkok, Vancouver, Los Angeles and finally San Diego. The Loop took Alys one month and five days rather a few minutes - an absurd journey that called attention to Mexico and America's frought attitudes to their shared border. Combining humour, sensitivity and an extremely personal connection to the people and places where he works, Francis Alys often employs the basic human activity of walking to create performances, photo documentation, videos, slide projections and paintings. The artist first came to international attention with a performance work called "Narcotourism" ('NowHere', Lousiana Museum, 1996) in which he walked the city of Copenhagen over the course of seven days, each day under the influence of a different drug. Alys here underlined the wholly personal experience of artmaking, as well as the hyperreal and unnatural experience of contemporary tourism, reducing his travels to completely interiorized, personal 'trips'. A very independent artist belonging to no particular group, Alys' is a unique and truly international voice in today's global art world.

《一句顶一万句》的故事很简单，小说的前半部写的是过去：孤独无助的吴摩西失去唯一能够“说得上话”的养女，为了寻找，走出延津；小说的后半部写的是现在：吴摩西养女的儿子牛爱国，同样为了摆脱孤独寻找“说得上话”的朋友，走向延津。一走一来，延宕百年。书中的人物大部分是中国最底层的老百姓，偏偏安排了一个意大利牧师老詹。