Mother River

Can Xue (Barefoot Doctor) delivers an exquisite collection of surreal stories animated by anthropomorphism, dream logic, and the search for hidden truths. In “Mother River” and “The Young Man Who Loved to Think Deeply,” shadows are living entities. Rocks grow inside people’s bodies in “Stone Village,” and a rare golden peacock is rumored to frequent a popular coffee shop in “The Inside Story.” Elsewhere, characters uncover hidden meanings from magical objects, such as the spherical map in “Mother River” or a telescope in “The Neighborhood.” Several stories revolve around a young person’s coming of age. Zhong Dafu, the spacey title character in “The Young Man Who Loved to Think Deeply,” lives on an inheritance from his parents in an apartment building one floor below his concerned aunt, who tries to get him to apply himself by having an elderly man teach him the game of Go. Five years after giving up on Dafu, the teacher mysteriously returns wearing an eye patch, about which he elliptically explains, “Nothing’s wrong with my eye. It’s just that I wanted to change my field of vision.” Xue’s brilliant and mind-bending collection encourages readers to do just that. It’s superb. (Jan.)