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Thanks—in a somewhat roundabout way—to Arts Council England funding, I had the chance to meet with Eric Abrahamsen and Nikki Harman from at the London Book Fair. Paper Republic is one of the best online sources for information about Chinese literature, especially thanks to resources such as their

A relatively new feature, the site now offers three short lists: , and

They’re still in the process of adding information about each of these fifteen books and authors, and, in some cases, even making sample translations available. You can visit the links above to see the complete lists, but here are a couple titles that caught my eye:

• “Equal parts literary achievement and editorial tour de force, Hua Qiang (Truth and Variations) is comprised of faux-historical documents, invented archival materials and pseudo-interviews spanning the Communist Revolution, Cultural Revolution and present day.” (From the Best Five Books from the Past Fifty Years.)

• Happy by Jia Pingwa: Not described on Paper Republic, but Nicky Harman’s very promising appeared in The Guardian some time back. (The Five Best Untranslated Books of the Past Five Years.)