The Republic of Wine

Mo Yan · b. 1955 · China

Originally Jiuguo (Chinese) · translated by Howard Goldblatt

Why it matters

A special investigator sent to probe rumors of cadres feasting on braised infants grows progressively drunker and less reliable, in a metafictional satire that folds in a correspondent named Mo Yan himself. His most experimental and blackly comic novel, gorging on the corruption it's meant to expose.

At a glance

Metafictional layering, unreliable narration, and interleaved short stories fracture the plot deliberately.