Yiyun Li's first novel The Vagrants (published in 2010) is set in a provincial town in China called Muddy River. The action takes place during the period leading up to the rapidly crushed protests in Red Square in 1989. It follows the stories of a number of characters in the town, some of whom are actively engaged in politics, the majority of whom simply lead their lives within the framework of and despite the difficulties created by their government system.
Each character is expertly brought to life. Each story is sad. One of the achievements of the novel is to be undogmatic yet, simply through the telling of each character's story, to provide the reader with a vivid understanding of how grim it is to live under a totalitarian regime.
Yiyun Li is one of the wisest writers at work today. This novel is gripping, poignant and fascinating. Her characters, especially Teacher Gu, Tong, Mrs Hua and Nini, will stay in my imagination, their stories and those of the others in the novel, both intriguing for themselves but also windows into a deprived and constantly dangerous way of life where famine has to be endured, along with various other lesser trials and in which every citizen's freedom is, to a greater or lesser extent curtailed.
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