Soul Mountain

Gao Xingjian · b. 1940 · China / France

Originally Lingshan (Chinese) · translated by Mabel Lee

Why it matters

A journey to the source of the Yangtze, undertaken after a false cancer diagnosis, unfolds in alternating first- and second-person voices. Travelogue, memory, and folklore fused into the novel that helped win Gao the first Chinese-language Nobel Prize.

At a glance

Fragmented, plotless structure alternating pronouns and blending genres freely.