Becoming Yourself in the World

The book is composed of seven short stories. Night Train is a story of a divorcing couple who decide to make their last journey together in this world before parting forever; Shepherd depicts a romance between a teacher and a student, which, though immoral as it appears, nearly has something in common with pure love; Lungfish exposes the answer to who, a quiet wife or a garrulous husband, could be the fish that survives like magic in the walled city of marriage; You're Still Young tells a story of an unhappy woman who doesn't want to have children to stay unhappy; Dull-red Clouds Hidden in the Dark concerns friendship and the self - it is not surprising to have bosom friends and to be betrayed in life, but what matters is how to grow to be true self in a perilous world; Behind Wind Is Wind writes of a lovelorn woman who, in making all kinds of dark cuisine, finally understands that love is utterly a business of one person alone, and then comes out of bondage into freedom; and Beginning and Ending narrates that the end of a love affair cannot be achieved by another unproven beginning, and there are always breathtaking things happened in the desert of life all the time...

This book by Wen Zhen is significant in that it explores the more essential and deeper problems of birth, death, love, and desire, and looks further into the complex relationship of the individual with others and the world. In reading the book which begins with Night Train, you will feel as aboard a "night train" heading for an immensely fascinating destination, journeying through all the ups and downs of life until arriving at what a true life is.