Sandalwood Death Explained

Author:	Mo Yan
Published:	2001
Title Orig:	檀香刑
Orig Lang Code:	zh
English Pub Date:	2013

Sandalwood Death is a 2001 novel by Nobel prize-winning author Mo Yan.^[1] The English version, translated by Howard Goldblatt, was released in 2013 by the University of Oklahoma Press.^[2]

Plot summary

Maoqiang (茂腔) opera singer Sun Bing, a leader of the Boxer Rebellion, is sentenced to death for attacking at the hands of his daughter's father-in-law, an executioner known for killing by "sandalwood death," a slow method of punishment in which the victim is skewered with a cured sandalwood rod.^[3]

In his author's note, Yan writes that he had difficulty telling friends what his book was about, eventually electing to tell them it was "all about sound."^[4]

Notes and References

1. Web site: Mo Yan, Chinese author . Encyclopedia Britannica . 8 December 2018 . en.
2. Web site: Press Release: MO YAN WINS THE 2012 NOBEL PRIZE FOR LITERATURE Chinese Literature Today . www.ou.edu . University of Oklahoma Press . 8 December 2018.
3. Web site: Buruma . Ian . Folk Opera . The New York Times . 8 December 2018 . 31 January 2013.
4. Web site: Fiction Book Review: Sandalwood Death by Mo Yan, trans. from the Chinese by Howard Goldblatt . Univ. of Oklahoma, $24.95 (424p) ISBN 978-0-8061-4339-2 . Publishers Weekly . 8 December 2018 . en.