Soul Mountain by Nobel Prize Winner Gao Xingjian Kicks Off Global E-Book Program
HarperCollins Publishers Announces First Global E-Book Publishing Program Under Newly Formed Imprint, PerfectBound
(EMAILWIRE.COM, February 20, 2001 ) New York, NY -- HarperCollins Publishers today announced the launch of the first global e-book publishing program. Leading the launch list of fifteen titles is the novel Soul Mountain by Gao Xingjian, winner of the Nobel Prize in Literature 2000. The e-book edition includes "The Case for Literature," Mr. Gao's address to the Swedish Academy (this text is not available in print editions of the novel).
Each PerfectBound e-book will be published in the U.S., the U.K., Canada, Australia and New Zealand during February and March. Additional e-book lists will follow bi-monthly, eventually featuring a combination of globally and locally published titles.
* * *
"Soul Mountain is one of those singular literary creations that seem impossible to compare with anything but themselves…. In the writing of Gao Xingjian literature is born anew from the struggle of the individual to survive the history of the masses."
--from the citation of the Nobel Prize committee of the Swedish Academy
When this year's Nobel Prize for Literature was awarded to Chinese expatriate novelist and playwright Gao Xingjian, few in the English-speaking West were familiar with his work. Gao's masterpiece, SOUL MOUNTAIN (PerfectBound, an e-book from HarperCollins; February 20, 2001; $19.95), is a dazzling kaleidoscope of fiction, philosophy, history and fable. Elegantly translated by Australian sinologist Mabel Lee, this richly textured autobiographical novel recounts a dual journey--a literal journey into the heart of China and a spiritual journey of the self.
When Gao was 43, he was incorrectly diagnosed with lung cancer. Resigned to death by the same means that had claimed his father just a few years before, Gao spent six weeks indulging his appetites and reading philosophy. The spot on Gao's lung mysteriously disappeared, but a new threat arose when rumors began to circulate that he was to be sent to a prison farm because of his controversial writings. No longer facing imminent death, the writer quickly left Beijing and disappeared into the remote forest regions of Sichuan, then spent five months wandering along the Yangtze River from its source down to the coast. Gao's 15,000 kilometer sojourn forms the geographic parameters of the fictional journey in SOUL MOUNTAIN.
While on a train at the start of his trip, the writer protagonist meets another traveler who says he is going to Lingshan, “soul mountain,” which can be found by the remote source of the You River. The writer has never heard of such a place, and he resolves to go there, but his fellow traveler can give him none but the vaguest directions. Thus begins a metaphoric odyssey into the hinterlands of China and the outlying Qiang, Miao and Yi districts that dangle on the fringes of Han Chinese civilization.
The writer is in search of the traditions that are hidden in rural China, and as he travels he encounters a parade of unforgettable characters who embody both vestiges of the past--Daoist masters, Buddhist monks, ancient calligraphers--and the modern culture that has surfaced since the revolution: small town communist cadres, budding entrepreneurs, independent young girls grappling with parochial repression. The two worlds exist uneasily as one, with stories and customs from centuries past colliding with a world of televisions, automobiles, and technology. All is permeated by the dark legacy of the Cultural Revolution, the encroachment of ecological damage, and the harsh monetary realities of everyday life in contemporary China.
SOUL MOUNTAIN is a dazzling work of the imagination, where classic fables merge with tales of modern cruelty and ancient philosophy does battle with existentialism. But Gao goes deeper still as he explores notions of the devastation of the self at the hands of social expectations. He continually shifts his narrative voice as the “I” of the writer becomes the “you” of an imagined companion, then the “she” of a woman companion. Yet all reflects back on the protagonist, who craves these two seemingly contradictory ends--the solitude necessary for nurturing the self and the anxiety-provoking warmth of human society.
Gao began this novel in the mid-eighties, then carried the manuscript with him when he fled China in 1987. Now living in Paris, he completed the book there in 1989. His writings continue to be banned in his native country. As Gao's work at last gains the public's attention here in the West, SOUL MOUNTAIN provides a dazzling introduction to the achievement of one of contemporary literature's acknowledged masters.
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Gao Xingjian is the first Chinese recipient of the Nobel Prize in Literature. Born in 1940 in Jiangxi province in eastern China, he studied in state schools, earned a university degree in French in Bejing, and embarked on a life of letters. Choosing exile in 1987, he settled in Paris, where he completed SOUL MOUNTAIN two years later. In 1992 he was named Chevalier de L’Ordre des Arts et des Lettres by the French government. He is a playwright and painter as well as a fiction writer and critic.
ABOUT THE TRANSLATOR
Mabel Lee, Ph.D., has been a Professor of Asian Studies at the University of Sydney. Dr. Lee is one of Australia's leading authorities on Chinese cultural affairs.
SOUL MOUNTAIN
By Gao Xingjian
Nobel Prize Winner in Literature 2000
Publication Date: February 20, 2001
PerfectBound, an e-book from HarperCollins
Price: $19.95
ISBN's for three e-book formats:
0066213037 MS Reader
0066213045 Adobe Acrobat E-Reader
0066213029 Gemstar (REB1100 [Rocketbook] and REB1200 [Softbook])
* * *
PerfectBound e-books will be sold through a wide range of online retailers worldwide including:
Australia
*Seekbooks.com.au
Canada
Chapters.ca
United Kingdom
Fireandwater.com
*Seekbooks.co.uk
*Waterstones.co.uk
United States
Amazon.com
Advanced Marketing Services’ retail customers
The Booksite Network
*Contentville.com
*Ebooks.com
*Gemstar (through the catalog on the Gemstar eBook devices from RCA)
*Powells.com
*Seekbooks.com
* Indicates retailers from whom PerfectBound e-books are available immediately; all others will follow shortly.
HarperCollins is one of the leading English-language publishers in the world and is a subsidiary of News Corporation (NYSE: NWS, NWS.A; ASX: NCP, NCPDP). Headquartered in New York, the company has publishing groups in the U.S., Canada, the U.K. and Australasia. Its publishing groups include the HarperCollins General Books Group, HarperCollins Children’s Books Group, Zondervan, HarperCollins UK, HarperCollins Canada and HarperCollins Australia/New Zealand. The HarperCollins General Books Group is made up of four operating divisions: HarperTrade, Morrow/Avon, HarperInformation and HarperSanFrancisco. You can visit HarperCollins Publishers on the Internet at http://www.harpercollins.com.
# # #
Contact: Sean Abbott
Senior Editor
(212) 207-7180
Sean.Abbott@HarperCollins.com
Each PerfectBound e-book will be published in the U.S., the U.K., Canada, Australia and New Zealand during February and March. Additional e-book lists will follow bi-monthly, eventually featuring a combination of globally and locally published titles.
* * *
"Soul Mountain is one of those singular literary creations that seem impossible to compare with anything but themselves…. In the writing of Gao Xingjian literature is born anew from the struggle of the individual to survive the history of the masses."
--from the citation of the Nobel Prize committee of the Swedish Academy
When this year's Nobel Prize for Literature was awarded to Chinese expatriate novelist and playwright Gao Xingjian, few in the English-speaking West were familiar with his work. Gao's masterpiece, SOUL MOUNTAIN (PerfectBound, an e-book from HarperCollins; February 20, 2001; $19.95), is a dazzling kaleidoscope of fiction, philosophy, history and fable. Elegantly translated by Australian sinologist Mabel Lee, this richly textured autobiographical novel recounts a dual journey--a literal journey into the heart of China and a spiritual journey of the self.
When Gao was 43, he was incorrectly diagnosed with lung cancer. Resigned to death by the same means that had claimed his father just a few years before, Gao spent six weeks indulging his appetites and reading philosophy. The spot on Gao's lung mysteriously disappeared, but a new threat arose when rumors began to circulate that he was to be sent to a prison farm because of his controversial writings. No longer facing imminent death, the writer quickly left Beijing and disappeared into the remote forest regions of Sichuan, then spent five months wandering along the Yangtze River from its source down to the coast. Gao's 15,000 kilometer sojourn forms the geographic parameters of the fictional journey in SOUL MOUNTAIN.
While on a train at the start of his trip, the writer protagonist meets another traveler who says he is going to Lingshan, “soul mountain,” which can be found by the remote source of the You River. The writer has never heard of such a place, and he resolves to go there, but his fellow traveler can give him none but the vaguest directions. Thus begins a metaphoric odyssey into the hinterlands of China and the outlying Qiang, Miao and Yi districts that dangle on the fringes of Han Chinese civilization.
The writer is in search of the traditions that are hidden in rural China, and as he travels he encounters a parade of unforgettable characters who embody both vestiges of the past--Daoist masters, Buddhist monks, ancient calligraphers--and the modern culture that has surfaced since the revolution: small town communist cadres, budding entrepreneurs, independent young girls grappling with parochial repression. The two worlds exist uneasily as one, with stories and customs from centuries past colliding with a world of televisions, automobiles, and technology. All is permeated by the dark legacy of the Cultural Revolution, the encroachment of ecological damage, and the harsh monetary realities of everyday life in contemporary China.
SOUL MOUNTAIN is a dazzling work of the imagination, where classic fables merge with tales of modern cruelty and ancient philosophy does battle with existentialism. But Gao goes deeper still as he explores notions of the devastation of the self at the hands of social expectations. He continually shifts his narrative voice as the “I” of the writer becomes the “you” of an imagined companion, then the “she” of a woman companion. Yet all reflects back on the protagonist, who craves these two seemingly contradictory ends--the solitude necessary for nurturing the self and the anxiety-provoking warmth of human society.
Gao began this novel in the mid-eighties, then carried the manuscript with him when he fled China in 1987. Now living in Paris, he completed the book there in 1989. His writings continue to be banned in his native country. As Gao's work at last gains the public's attention here in the West, SOUL MOUNTAIN provides a dazzling introduction to the achievement of one of contemporary literature's acknowledged masters.
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Gao Xingjian is the first Chinese recipient of the Nobel Prize in Literature. Born in 1940 in Jiangxi province in eastern China, he studied in state schools, earned a university degree in French in Bejing, and embarked on a life of letters. Choosing exile in 1987, he settled in Paris, where he completed SOUL MOUNTAIN two years later. In 1992 he was named Chevalier de L’Ordre des Arts et des Lettres by the French government. He is a playwright and painter as well as a fiction writer and critic.
ABOUT THE TRANSLATOR
Mabel Lee, Ph.D., has been a Professor of Asian Studies at the University of Sydney. Dr. Lee is one of Australia's leading authorities on Chinese cultural affairs.
SOUL MOUNTAIN
By Gao Xingjian
Nobel Prize Winner in Literature 2000
Publication Date: February 20, 2001
PerfectBound, an e-book from HarperCollins
Price: $19.95
ISBN's for three e-book formats:
0066213037 MS Reader
0066213045 Adobe Acrobat E-Reader
0066213029 Gemstar (REB1100 [Rocketbook] and REB1200 [Softbook])
* * *
PerfectBound e-books will be sold through a wide range of online retailers worldwide including:
Australia
*Seekbooks.com.au
Canada
Chapters.ca
United Kingdom
Fireandwater.com
*Seekbooks.co.uk
*Waterstones.co.uk
United States
Amazon.com
Advanced Marketing Services’ retail customers
The Booksite Network
*Contentville.com
*Ebooks.com
*Gemstar (through the catalog on the Gemstar eBook devices from RCA)
*Powells.com
*Seekbooks.com
* Indicates retailers from whom PerfectBound e-books are available immediately; all others will follow shortly.
HarperCollins is one of the leading English-language publishers in the world and is a subsidiary of News Corporation (NYSE: NWS, NWS.A; ASX: NCP, NCPDP). Headquartered in New York, the company has publishing groups in the U.S., Canada, the U.K. and Australasia. Its publishing groups include the HarperCollins General Books Group, HarperCollins Children’s Books Group, Zondervan, HarperCollins UK, HarperCollins Canada and HarperCollins Australia/New Zealand. The HarperCollins General Books Group is made up of four operating divisions: HarperTrade, Morrow/Avon, HarperInformation and HarperSanFrancisco. You can visit HarperCollins Publishers on the Internet at http://www.harpercollins.com.
# # #
Contact: Sean Abbott
Senior Editor
(212) 207-7180
Sean.Abbott@HarperCollins.com
Contact Information:
HarperCollins Publishers
Joseph Nchor
Tel:
Email us
This is a press release. Press release distribution and press release services by EmailWire.Com: http://www.emailwire.com/us-press-release-distribution.php.
HarperCollins Publishers
Joseph Nchor
Tel:
Email us
This is a press release. Press release distribution and press release services by EmailWire.Com: http://www.emailwire.com/us-press-release-distribution.php.
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HarperCollins Publishers Announces First Global E-Book Publishing Program Under Newly Formed Imprint
HarperCollins Publishers Announces First Global E-Book Publishing Program Under Newly Formed Imprint
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