num_pages: 225
description: This new collection of short stories by the award-winning author of Waiting confirms Ha Jin's reputation as a master storyteller, as well as a master of the miniature. In The Bridegroom, the twelve stories capture a China in transition, moving from Maoism towards a more open society. For these men and women, starting to feel the influence of the West, the daily dramas of a system that still struggles to control their every move and thought are made all the more painful by this. As his characters, from an entrepreneur, transformed from black-market criminal to free market hero, to the workers at Cowboy Chicken, to the professor mistaken by the police for a saboteur, continue to struggle against petty injustices and heartbreaks, Ha Jin celebrates their lives and humanity with the understated humour and simplicity that has won him widespread acclaim.
language: English
title: The Bridegroom
titlecomplete: The Bridegroom
genres: Asia, Short Stories, Historical Fiction, Literary Fiction, Asian Literature, Literature, Chinese Literature, China, Fiction, Contemporary
ratings_count: 2287
awards: awardedAt: 1009872000000
name: Townsend Prize for Fiction
publisher: Vintage Books