{"product_id":"the-backstreets-perhat-tursun-9780231202909","title":"The Backstreets: A Novel from Xinjiang","description":"\u003ci\u003eThe Backstreets\u003c\/i\u003e is an astonishing novel by a preeminent contemporary Uyghur author who was disappeared by the Chinese state. It follows an unnamed Uyghur man who comes to the impenetrable Chinese capital of Xinjiang after finding a temporary job in a government office. Seeking to escape the pain and poverty of the countryside, he finds only cold stares and rejection. He wanders the streets, accompanied by the bitter fog of winter pollution, reciting a monologue of numbers and odors, lust and loathing, memories and madness. \u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003ePerhat Tursun's novel is a work of untrammeled literary creativity. His evocative prose recalls a vast array of canonical world writers--contemporary Chinese authors such as Mo Yan; the modernist images and rhythms of Camus, Dostoevsky, and Kafka; the serious yet absurdist dissection of the logic of racism in Ellison's \u003ci\u003eInvisible Man\u003c\/i\u003e--while drawing deeply on Uyghur literary traditions and Sufi poetics and combining all these disparate influences into a style that is distinctly Tursun's own. \u003ci\u003eThe Backstreets\u003c\/i\u003e is a stark fable about urban isolation and social violence, dehumanization and the racialization of ethnicity. Yet its protagonist's vivid recollections of maternal tenderness and first love reveal how memory and imagination offer profound forms of resilience. A translator's introduction situates the novel in the political atmosphere that led to the disappearance of both the author and his work.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eAuthor:\u003c\/b\u003e Perhat Tursun\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eISBN-10:\u003c\/b\u003e 0231202903\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eISBN-13:\u003c\/b\u003e 9780231202909\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003ePublisher:\u003c\/b\u003e Columbia University Press\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eLanguage:\u003c\/b\u003e English\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003ePublished:\u003c\/b\u003e 09\/13\/2022\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003ePages:\u003c\/b\u003e 248\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eFormat:\u003c\/b\u003e Hardcover\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eWeight:\u003c\/b\u003e 0.80lbs\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eSize:\u003c\/b\u003e 8.50h x 5.50w x 0.50d","brand":"Perhat Tursun","offers":[{"title":"Hardcover","offer_id":43944677441791,"sku":"9780231202909","price":80.0,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0662\/2982\/9887\/products\/img_8371e886-ac4a-44f4-abaa-5032c084344e.jpg?v=1681504667","url":"https:\/\/www.whiterainbookhouse.com\/products\/the-backstreets-perhat-tursun-9780231202909","provider":"WR Book House","version":"1.0","type":"link"}