Chinese writer Yan Lianke's controversial novel "The Four Books" has been chosen as one of the six masterpieces shortlisted for the Man Booker International Prize, reported the Global Times.
Translated into English by Carlos Rojas, the book "explores the chasm between high-flown ideology and brutal reality in [a] satire on the Great Leap Forward," said David Evans in a review published in The Financial Times.
The 58-year-old author joins Elena Ferrante, Orhan Pamuk, Robert Seethaler, Han Kang and José Eduardo Agualusa among the shortlisted authors.
"This exhilarating shortlist will take readers both around the globe and to every frontier of fiction," Boyd Tonkin, chair of the judging panel, was quoted as saying in the Global Times report.
"These six books tell unforgettable stories from China and Angola, Austria and Turkey, Italy and South Korea," Tonkin added. "In setting, they range from a Mao-era re-education camp and a remote Alpine valley to the modern tumult and transformation of cities such as Naples and Istanbul."
Yan is known for his satirical works with underlying commentaries on China's social landscape. He started his career as a writer in 1978. Some of his works are "Xia Rilou," "Serve the People," "Enjoyment" and "Dream of Ding Village."
He won the Man Asia Literary Prize and the Franz Kafka Prize in 2011 and 2014, respectively.
According to The Guardian, it took Yan 20 years to plan and two more to write "The Four Books."
"He wrote it exactly as he wanted to, without regard for the censor. It was rejected by 20 publishers, all of whom understood that publishing it would mean they would be shut down," told The Guardian.
Held in Britain, the Man Booker International Prize is a world-renowned literary award for a body of work in fiction available in English translation. Starting 2016, the award is being given annually to a living writer. The awardee takes home 50,000 pounds, which will be shared between the writer and the book translator.