(A tribute to The Stranger and The Catcher in the Rye) When Camus's absurdity meets Salinger's rebellion, and the steel-and-concrete jungle of the twenty-first century collides with the emptiness deep within human nature, Miao Zhao, an economics student from a highly educated family, finds himself standing on the fault line of his era.
He is the clear-eyed observer who deconstructs market logic in the classroom, a bystander who touches the harsh reality of suffering beside the assembly line, and a wanderer in the countryside asking what it means to exist. From the neon lights of Lujiazui to the roar of factories, from library regulations to smoke curling above village homes, he watches order succumb to entropy and human nature deteriorate. Amid the clash between capital and ideals, and the struggle between alienation and perseverance, he keeps asking: when the world becomes an absurd theater, how can an individual find an anchor for existence?
This is not a passionate rebellion, but a solitary breakout. From city to countryside, from books to reality, Miao Zhao carries a love for the world that is both pessimistic and burning as he searches the wasteland of emptiness for an answer to how to live, one that belongs to him and cannot be defined by others.
When existentialism meets the texture of twenty-first-century China, every soul struggling amid the absurd will see its own reflection in his journey.
(The first chapter establishes the broad setting for the whole novel, so it may seem overly technical and a little dull. Things will get better from the second chapter onward. I'm confident that the prose, plot, and ideas in this book will not disappoint you!)
Author's words: This book is an existential literary novel that I created under the influence of literary works such as "The Outsider" and "The Catcher in the Rye". Unfortunately, no publisher is willing to publish it. I hope it can be seen by more readers here. Since the whole book only has a few hundred thousand words, I plan to serialize only a few thousand words every day, because I am afraid that if I upload the whole book in a short time, it may be gone before a few people see it. As an author, I sincerely hope that my work can be seen by more readers. Since the first chapter of the novel is the chapter that lays down the background of the whole text, it may seem too technical and boring. It will gradually get better from the second chapter. I am confident that the writing, plot and ideas of this book will never disappoint you! Naturally, I don't want some chapters of this book to be removed from the shelves due to force majeure. If this happens, I will find a way to allow readers to read the complete chapters. Thank you for your reading and criticism!