Book review: Frog - Mo Yan dramatises trauma of one-child policy in China

Frog
by Mo Yan
Viking

Dissident Ma Jian's haunting 2013 novel tells the story of a rural couple who live like fugitives on the Yangtze River, while trying to have a second baby in violation of China's one-child policy. Described by the noted author and literary critic Hari Kunzru as "immoderate, excessive, strident" but also "deeply compelling", the novel highlights one of the most disquieting aspects of modern Chinese history.

It's tempting to speculate what the fate of Ma's protagonists might have been had they run into Gugu, the central character in , the latest novel by Chinese Nobel laureate Mo Yan. Gugu is a midwife who makes it her life's mission to enforce China's family planning law by ruthlessly pursuing every illegal pregnancy she comes across. Even the wife of her nephew, the novel's narrator, is not spared when she falls pregnant with their second child.

First published in Chinese in 2009 and awarded the state-sponsored Mao Dun literary prize in 2011, is a 388-page dystopian novel. Like the other works by Mo Yan (the pen-name of author Guan Moye), the story is set in his hometown Gaomi in Shandong province. And the novel's narrator is a character who, like the author, showed literary talent while serving in the army.

Mo Yan's name literally means "don't speak". Outside China, he is perceived to be a controversial writer because of his ties to the Chinese establishment. But any suggestion that his latest novel soft-pedals China's one-child policy would be as absurd as it is false. Not only is a superb novel, it's a work of art suffused with morality and meaning.