Liuxi Ferry

The story takes place in the Jiangnan waterside town of Qizhen, from the 1940s through the 1970s. It follows Shen Wangdi, the last of the town’s boatwomen, her adopted son Shuisheng, and the family of Gu Qingrang, descendants of a scholarly household that moved there from Shanghai. Centered on the canal tributary known as Liuxi, it portrays the lives, loves, farewells, and quiet hopes of boatmen, rice-shop owners, teahouse keepers, private-school teachers, and other ordinary people. As the tides of history rise and fall in silence, some struggle with all their might to hold on to something, while others quietly become pebbles on the riverbed. In spare, unadorned prose, the novel depicts flowing waters and passing boats, the vicissitudes of human life, and unspoken bonds of affection, all of which ultimately return to the silent current.