A Night in a Chinese Hospital

Fiction. From Howard Goldblatt, the renowned translator of Chinese fiction, comes a collection of more than eighty short-short stories (also known as flash fiction, with many stories under 300 words), that encompass a wide range of styles, tones, themes, and effects. The book is itself a performance and a work of art. There are absurdities worthy of the likes of Gogol, Kafka, and Charles Addams; there are ironies, surprises, poignantly thoughtful observations, and statements; and there are autobiographical snippets, more revealing of attitude than time or place. The stories take the reader from the Colorado Rockies to Scandinavia to China, with additional visits to unmapped, psychological locales, offering glimpses into the joys, cruelties, and absolute wonders of contemporary life.