Beneath the Heavenly Way, Everything Is Slow

This book follows the growth of its protagonist, Lin Xiaoman, weaving together the tender watchfulness of three generations over half a century.

From the fairy-tale lesson his father gave him at age five, "The moon follows you because it likes you," to his struggles as a teenager between ideals and reality, insecurity and deep love; from the pain of hitting dead ends at work as an adult and retreating from love out of guilt, to his eventual reunion with the moonlight he once missed and the happy ending made possible by the person he saved.

There are no earth-shaking heroes in this story, only ordinary people: a taciturn father who, like Lin Xiaoman's, records every detail of his son's life in a diary; a stubborn girl like Lin Zhiyu, who hides her achievements to protect her lover's pride, even going so far as to fake a story about dropping out to work; and gentle passersby like Xiaolu, who teach the protagonist to grow by leaving.

The book's most moving climax is set on the night after both of his parents have died. The protagonist finds an old wooden chest beneath his bed. Inside are his great-great-grandfather's family precepts, his grandfather's notes, his father's diary, and an old radio that recorded his father's final words. In that moment, silent paternal love rings deafeningly across the divide of life and death, and a river of "love and faith" finally flows into his heart.