The Republic of Wine - Tapa blanda

Special Investigator Ding Gou'er is dispatched to the Republic of Wine to investigate rumours of cannibalism. Beginning his mission at the mining company, he soon encounters Diamond Jin whose legendary capacity to hold liqour seems to hide a fondness for darker appetites. Then, at a banquet served in his honour, Ding Gou'er partakes of a dish - the memory of which is confused by an alcoholic fog - he will come to regret eating ... In this hypnotic narrative, Mo Yan spins tales of terrible creatures - a dwarf, a scaly demon, a troupe of small boys raised for eating and a cookery teacher who primes her students with monstrous recipes.

Mo Yan is the author of various novellas and short stories and numerous novels including Red Sorghum, The Republic of Wine, Big Breasts and Wide Hips, Life and Death Are Wearing Me Out and The Garlic Ballads. In 2012 he was awarded the Nobel Prize for Literature.