Tvrdý jak voda – Lien-kche Jean (2023)

China, spring 1968. The Cultural Revolution is sweeping away everything old from the cities, and now Kao must carry the flame of new thinking back to his homeland. Before he can blow everything up in the name of the revolution, he meets a mysterious beautiful woman at the train station. He is immediately clear: he will make the revolution with this comrade! The revolution may not be a school performance, but the two are destined for each other, and so he calls after her from the embankment: "If we plant the seed of friendship today, our revolutionary love will never wither!" ***** You are opening a novel bursting with humor, political twists, intrigues and plots, popular courts and lynchings, rare manuscripts, dynamite, construction, busts of Chairman Mao, references to old, progressive, and banned literature, the ups and downs of political careers, love, and also desire. On top of all that, there’s a tunnel dug by hand. ***** Hard as Water is the work of one of the greatest contemporary Chinese writers, a novel filled with humor and a fierce emotional charge, a universal human drama about the nature of power, the dangers of pride, and the strength of desire that rolls on despite everything and everyone, only the direction is unknown.