Cold Nights

Ba Jin · 1904–2005 · China

Originally Han Ye (Chinese) · translated by Nathan K. Mao and Liu Ts'un-yan

Why it matters

A tubercular translator, his embittered mother, and his estranged wife tear each other apart in one cramped wartime Chongqing apartment. Ba Jin's bleakest novel trades Family's revolutionary hope for a marriage collapsing under poverty and war.

At a glance

Claustrophobic domestic conflict escalates through interior monologue with almost no relief or subplot.