Years of Red Dust

By Qiu Xiaolong,

Book cover of Years of Red Dust: Stories of Shanghai

Book description

Published originally in the pages of Le Monde, this collection of linked short stories by Qiu Xiaolong has already been a major bestseller in France (Cite de la Poussiere Rouge) and Germany (Das Tor zur Roten Gasse), where it and the author was the subject of a major television documentary.…

Shepherd is reader supported. When you buy books, we may earn an affiliate commission.

Why read it?

1 author picked Years of Red Dust as one of their favorite books. Why do they recommend it?

There is a lot of wonderful fiction set in Shanghai, so I wanted to make sure to include one such work. Figuring out which wasn’t easy, as there are good short stories and novels by a range of important authors, from deceased writers like Mao Dun, Eileen Chang, and J.G. Ballard, whose partly autobiographical Empire of the Sun was based on his Shanghai childhood, to living ones like Wang Anyi. I chose this collection of vignettes by Qiu Xiaolong (who is best known for his Inspector Chen Shanghai-set police procedurals and grew up in Shanghai and now lives in the…

From Jeffrey's list on twentieth-century Shanghai.

Want books like Years of Red Dust?

Our community of 11,000+ authors has personally recommended 100 books like Years of Red Dust.

Browse books like Years of Red Dust

5 book lists we think you will like!

Interested in Shanghai, the Chinese Cultural Revolution, and China?

11,000+ authors have recommended their favorite books and what they love about them. Browse their picks for the best books about Shanghai, the Chinese Cultural Revolution, and China.

Shanghai Explore 51 books about Shanghai
The Chinese Cultural Revolution Explore 36 books about the Chinese Cultural Revolution
China Explore 592 books about China