An enchanting literary debut--already an international best-seller.  At the height of Mao's infamous Cultural Revolution, two boys are among hundreds of thousands exiled to the countryside for "re-education."  The narrator and his best friend, Luo, guilty of being the sons of doctors, find themselves in a remote village where, among the peasants of Phoenix mountain, they are made to cart buckets of excrement up and down precipitous winding paths.  Their meager distractions include a violin--as well as, before long, the beautiful daughter of the local tailor.  But it is when the two discover a hidden stash of Western classics in Chinese translation that their re-education takes its most surprising turn.  While ingeniously concealing their forbidden treasure, the boys find transit to worlds they had thought lost forever.  And after listening to their dangerously seductive retellings of Balzac, even the Little Seamstress will be forever transformed.  From within the hopelessness and terror of one of the darkest passages in human history, Dai Sijie has fashioned a beguiling and unexpected story about the resilience of the human spirit, the wonder of romantic awakening and the magical power of storytelling.

About the Author:  Dai Sijie was born in China in 1954.  Because he came from an educated middle-class family, the Maoist government sent him to a re-education camp in rural Sichuan from 1971 to 1974, during the Cultural Revolution.  After his return, he was able to complete high school and university, where he studied art history.  In 1984, he left China for France on a scholarship.  There, he acquired a passion for movies and became a director.  Before turning to writing, he made three critically-acclaimed feature-length films:  China, My Sorrow (1989) (original title: Chine, ma douleur), Le mangeur de lune and Tang, le onzième.  He also wrote and directed an adaptation of Balzac and the Little Chinese Seamstress, released in 2002.  
He lives in Paris and writes in French.

Copies of Balzac and the Little Chinese Seamstress are available at the Library's Circulation Desk.

Computer Training

Stop by the Circulation Desk to book your one-on-one (1 hour long) training session.  Computer training sessions, covering basic computer skills, will begin again on January 09, 2013.  A $5.00 cancellation deposit per session is required at the time of booking.  It is refundable at session time.  The $5.00 deposit is non-refundable within 48 hours of session.

Funding for this program is provided by the Community Adult Learning and Literacy Society (CALLS), Fort Saskatchewan / Strathcona County (creating Lifelong Learning Opportunities).  www.whatdidyoulearntoday.ca