Red Poppies
A Novel of Tibet
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3.0 • 2 Ratings
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- $12.99
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- $12.99
Publisher Description
This suspenseful saga of Tibet during the rise of Chinese Communism “conjures up a faraway world . . . panoramic and intimate at the same time” (Michiko Kakutani, The New York Times).
A lively and cinematic twentieth-century epic, Red Poppies focuses on the extravagant and brutal reign of a clan of Tibetan warlords during the rise of Chinese Communism. The story is wryly narrated by the chieftain’s son, a self-professed “idiot” who reveals the bloody feuds, seductions, secrets, and scheming behind his family’s struggles for power. When the chieftain agrees to grow opium poppies with seeds supplied by the Chinese Nationalists in exchange for modern weapons, he draws Tibet into the opium trade—and unwittingly plants the seeds for a downfall. A “swashbuckling novel,” Red Poppies is at once a political parable and a moving elegy to the lost kingdom of Tibet in all its cruelty, beauty, and romance (The New York Times Book Review).
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
Tribal intrigue among neighboring chieftains in early 20th-century, pre-occupation Tibet drives this witty first novel (and first book in a projected trilogy) by an ethnic Tibetan writing in Chinese, exuberantly translated by Goldblatt and Lin. The first-person narrative follows the comic vicissitudes and nutty coming-of-age of the Maiqi clan's Second Young Master, known far and wide as an idiot. Second Young Master, whose warlike older brother is being groomed to take over the family's vast landholdings in what is now Sichuan province, falls in and out of favor with his parents, who are never quite sure if his simple pronouncements mean he's a true idiot or a sage. Young Master attains manhood by sleeping with his mother's maid, makes friends with the son of the family's indentured executioner and learns much from such visitors as the Han special emissary, who promises to enrich the Maiqi chieftain if he will plant opium poppies. Poppies are planted, swelling the family's coffers, but also attracting the jealousy of nearby chieftains. Young Master finally proves himself by maneuvering cannily with chieftains on the borders of the family estate, returning with "untold riches" and a beautiful wife; later in life, he is enmeshed in the battles between White and Red Chinese. Basing his portrayal of Young Master on a legendary Tibetan wise man, Agu Dunba, Alai creates a character endowed with enormous heart and humor. His story makes for a murky history lesson, but it succeeds marvelously as a wacky and immensely enjoyable portrait of a thoroughly unusual figure.
