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  • Published: 20 June 2016
  • ISBN: 9780734399601
  • Imprint: Penguin
  • Format: Paperback
  • Pages: 100
  • RRP: $21.00

Flock of Brown Birds

Penguin Specials




In this avant garde novella, memory and time are subjective. A writer named Ge Fei retreats to the beautiful solitude of the Waterside to finish his novel inspired by the Revelations of St. John.

In this avant garde novella, memory and time are subjective. A writer named Ge Fei retreats to the beautiful solitude of the Waterside to finish his novel inspired by the Revelations of St. John. He perceives ominous and portentous signs in the natural landscape around him, particularly in a flock of brown birds that flies periodically past his window. The arrival of a mysterious woman named Qi magnifies his anxiety and sense of temporal disorientation, calling into question his grasp on reality.

  • Published: 20 June 2016
  • ISBN: 9780734399601
  • Imprint: Penguin
  • Format: Paperback
  • Pages: 100
  • RRP: $21.00

Other books in the series

About the author

Ge Fei

Ge Fei is one of China's foremost writers of experimental fiction and currently serves as Professor of Literature at Tsinghua University in Beijing. Frequently referred to as the 'Chinese Borges', he is a seminal figure of the 1980s era of literary and artistic revival. He is the winner of the 2014 Lu Xun Literary Prize for Fiction and the 2015 Mao Dun Literary Prize.

Praise for Flock of Brown Birds

It is impossible to enter the deeper aspects of contemporary Chinese literature without also entering the world of Ge Fei.

Enrique Vila-Matas