Known for his brilliantly dark fictional visions, Laszlo Krasznahorkai is one of
the most respected European writers of his generation and the winner of the 201
5 Man Booker International Prize. Here, he brings us on a journey through China
at the dawn of the new millennium. On the precipice of its emergence as a global
power, China is experiencing cataclysms of modernity as its harsh Maoist strict
ures meet the chaotic flux of globalism. What remains of the Middle Kingdom s an
cient cultural riches? And can a Westerner truly understand China s past and pre
sent or the murky waters where the two meet?
"Destruction and Sorrow beneath t
he Heavens" is both a travel memoir and the chronicle of a distinct intellectual
shift as one of the most captivating contemporary writers and thinkers begins t
o engage with the cultures of Asia and the legacies of its interactions with Eur
ope in a newly globalized society. Rendered in English by award-winning translat
or Ottilie Mulzet, "Destruction and Sorrow beneath the Heavens" is an important
work, marking the emergence of Krasznahorkai as a truly global novelist.
