Red Poppies : An Epic Saga of Old Tibet

ALAI

Penguin Group Australia

Red Poppies : A Novel of Tibet Hardcover Alai

Methuen Publishing, Ltd.

In the 1930s a wealthy Tibetan family, the Maiqis, make a bargain with an emissary of the Chinese Nationalists. In exchange for military support, they are to plant fields of poppies, valuable in the heroin trade - a deal that enriches the Maiqis' lavish lifestyle and earns them dangerous enmity.

Literature & Fiction

Contemporary

Methuen Pub Ltd

Sweeping changes begin to transform 1930s pre-occupation Tibet as members of the powerful and wealthy Maiqi family accept modern weapons from the Chinese Nationalists to assist the family in its feud with a neighboring chieftan in exchange for growing fields of poppies that will assist the Nationalist-backed heroin trade and enrich their own lifestyle. 20,000 first printing.

Red Poppies

Houghton, mifflin, harcourt

Red Poppies (Highbridge Distribution)

Literary

HighBridge Audio

Tibet, a tiny nation cloaked in mystery and clouded by myth, is the setting for this riveting family saga. Its author reveals that the land of his forebears is hardly the pacifistic little enclave solely inhabited by devout Buddhists that many Westerners have imagined. It is, rather, a far more complex and therefore intriguing land, where tradition collides with progress and individuals exhibit a range of universal character traits from virtuous to venal. Alai introduces the powerful Maiqi family--its imperious patriarch, his Han Chinese wife, his first son and heir, and his second, so-called idiot son, the tale's narrator and unlikely hero. Set largely in the 1930s, before the Chinese occupies Tibet, this prize-winning novel pits the Maiqis against a neighboring chieftain. When an emissary of the Chinese Nationalists offers aid in the form of modern warfare, the head of the Maiqi clan strikes a Faustian bargain: in return for this assistance, he agrees to plant red poppies, the source of heroin, instead of grain on the arid plains surrounding his stone fortress. As these vivid blossoms flourish, so do the enmity and risks faced by a privileged and seemingly invincible family. Epic in its sweep and high drama, Alai's novel suggests the work of Colombia's Gabriel Garcia Marquez and William Faulkner's revelatory fiction about the American South. Censored for several years because its sensitive political content, Red Poppies was finally published in 1998 by a prestigious Chinese firm, and two years later won that nation's top literary prize.

Red Poppies: CD

The Song of King Gesar is one of the world's great epics, as significant for Tibetans as the Odyssey and Iliad for the ancient Greeks, and as the Ramayana and Mahabarata in India. Passed down in song from one generation to the next, it is sung by Tibetan bards even today. Set partly in ancient Tibet, where evil spirits mingle with the lives of humans, and partly in the modern day, The Song of King Gesar tells of two lives inextricably entwined. Gesar, the youngest and bravest of the gods, has been sent down to the human world to defeat the demons that plague the lives of ordinary people. Jigmed is a young shepherd who is visited by dreams of Gesar, of gods, and of ancient battles while he sleeps. So begins an epic journey for both the shepherd and the king. The willful child of the gods will become Gesar, the warrior-king of Ling, and will unite the nation of Tibet under his reign. Jigmed will learn to see his troubled country with new eyes, and, as the storyteller chosen by the gods, must face his own destiny.

The Song of King Gesar: A Novel (Myths)

Science Fiction & Fantasy

Fantasy

Canongate UK

The first English translation of Tibet's founding myth, written by an acclaimed winner of the Mao Dun Prize, China's top literary award, and impeccably translated The Song of King Gesar is one of the world's great epics, as significant for Tibetans as the Odyssey and Iliad for the ancient Greeks, and as the Ramayana and Mahabarata in India. Passed down in song from one generation to the next, it is sung by Tibetan bards even today. Set partly in ancient Tibet, where evil spirits mingle with the lives of humans, and partly in the modern day, the tale tells of two lives inextricably entwined. Gesar, the youngest and bravest of the gods, has been sent down to the human world to defeat the demons that plague the lives of ordinary people. Jigmed is a young shepherd, who is visited by dreams of Gesar, of gods, and of ancient battles while he sleeps. So begins an epic journey for both the shepherd and the king. The willful child of the gods will become Gesar, the warrior-king of Ling, and will unite the nation of Tibet under his reign. Jigmed will learn to see his troubled country with new eyes, and, as the storyteller chosen by the gods, must face his own destiny.

Politics & Social Sciences

Social Sciences

Gezer Han Destani

Alfa Yayınları

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