Twenty Fragments of a Ravenous Youth

“An engrossing portrait of a charmingly chaotic young woman.”—Entertainment Weekly“Twenty Fragments resembles a Chekhov story in containing, under its brief, chatty surface, an enormous world…. It’s a little book that’s so moving, you’ll want to read it twice.”—Chicago Sun-Times“Energetic…. Fenfang Wang, the book’s endearing heroine is a young woman whose dynamic narration offers an intriguing glimpse into what it means to come of age in China.”—San Francisco ChroniclePraise from the UK for Twenty Fragments of a Ravenous Youth:“Xiaolu Guo’s literary voice remains a breath of the freshest air imaginable.”—The Independent“Xiaolu Guo is an instinctive, humane witness, her atmospheric, unusually physical narratives are alive and attractively insistent, inspired variations on the theme of quest … Guo’s observations will make you smile and remember; she will also nudge the reader towards thoughts about language, culture, and the very business of living.”—Irish Times“[A] sharp, unpretentiously sophisticated piece.”—Sunday Times“[Twenty Fragments of a Ravenous Youth] is a graceful, subtle novel…a piece of art that portrays human determination through evocative photos and simple narration.”—Sunday Herald “A delightful peek under the veil of today’s China.”—Daily Mail “This book is vacuum-packed, refrigerated, a novel that keeps its cool… impressively clear, unvarnished, honest.” —The Scotsman “Twenty Fragments of a Ravenous Youth shines with the utterly blameless, scarily fragile arrogance of youth itself.” —Telegraph “Slangy, direct, often disarming, the novel has an immediacy that brings [Xiaolu Guo’s heroine] Fenfang to life.”—Sydney Morning Herald (Australia) “[Twenty Fragments of a Ravenous Youth’s] impudent, hand-on-hips attitude cannot fail to charm.”—New Statesman