Workshop Notes

"Notes on a Retreat" is Shi Tiesheng's debut novel and a semi-autobiographical work. Across the immensity of space and the vastness of time, the author invites readers to contemplate the sorrow and impermanence of life, and to experience the richness and brevity of history. The novel's elegant and concise prose, combined with sincere and profound emotions, attempts to convey a poignant, mournful, and profound understanding of the vicissitudes of life. "I am part of my impressions, and all my impressions are 'me.'" This novel focuses on impressions of life, the truth within those impressions, and the varying starting points and destinations of the soul as it unfolds. Through the lens of animal reproduction, the life and death of plants, childhood experiences, revolution and betrayal, and the meaning of love, the novel explores the emptiness of existence, the philosophical propositions of soul, spirit, metaphysics, and essence—the emptiness yet not emptiness.

2023-03-01

人民文学出版社

506

9787020178063