The Enchanting Lives of Others

A celebration of the beguiling power of literature, from one of the world's greatest storytellers
 
At the Pigeon Book Club, a circle of readers joins in exhilarating meetings to discuss literature. The only requirements for entry are an all-encompassing love of books and the intuition that to read is to love and to love is to read. Xiao Sang, a department store clerk, wonders if life can ever be as captivating as a novel. Newlyweds Fei and Han Ma struggle to build a marriage as Han Ma discovers a surprising gift for storytelling. Xiao Ma, a hopeful dreamer, explores the possibility of romance with an older man. Bound by a shared passion for fiction, each book club member seeks to understand the relationship between the stories they read and the lives they lead, reveling in both the quotidian details and the ecstasy of aesthetics.
 
This is the most accessible work yet from the celebrated writer Can Xue: a utopian comedy and a work of profound joy, a love song to literary inspiration and the remarkable beauty of the ordinary. The Enchanting Lives of Others explores what it means to know and be known to others through the transformative power of reading.

Can Xue is the pseudonym of the Chinese writer Deng Xiaohua (b. 1953). Formerly a tailor, she began writing fiction in 1983. Her works include Barefoot Doctor, Five Spice Street, The Last Lover, Love in the New Millennium, and I Live in the Slums. Annelise Finegan is academic director and clinical associate professor of translation at New York University.