Zijian Chi

In this sweeping epic, full of love and loss, a woman from one of the last remote reindeer-herding tribes of northeastern China tells the story of her family and the last century of her country's history. 'A long-time confidante of the rain and snow, I am ninety years old. The rain and snow have weathered me, and I too have weathered them'. At the end of the twentieth-century an old woman sits among the birch trees and thinks back over her life, her loves, and the joys and tragedies that have befallen her family and her people. She is a member of the Evenki tribe who wander the remote forests of north-eastern China with their herds of reindeer, living in close sympathy with nature at its most beautiful and cruel. An idyllic childhood playing by the river ends with her father's death and the growing realisation that her mother's and uncle's relationship is not as simple as she thought. Then, in the 1930s, the intimate, secluded world of the tribe is shattered when the Japanese army invades China. The Evenki cannot avoid being pulled into the brutal conflict which marks the first step towards the end of their isolation... In The Last Quarter of the Moon, prize-winning novelist Chi Zijian, creates a dazzling epic about an extraordinary woman bearing witness not just to the stories of her tribe but also to the transformation of China.

The Last Quarter of the Moon

tara  (she/her)

I wont sleep in a room where I can't see the stars. All my life passed the night in their company. If I see a pitch-dark ceiling when I awake from my dreams, my eyes will go blind. My reindeer have committed no crime, and I don't want to see them imprisoned either 

If I can't hear those reindeer bells ringing like rippling water, I'll certainly go deaf. My legs and feet are accustomed to the jagged mountain paths, and if I have to walk the narrow, flat walkways of the town, my legs will become so flabby that they'll no longer support my weight, and I'll become a cripple. I've always breathed the fresh air of the mountain wilderness, and if I have to inhale the farts emitted by the cars in Busu, I'll suffocate. My body was bestowed by the Spirits, and I shall remain in the mountains to return it to the Spirits.

This fire I watch over is as ancient as me. In the face of fierce winds heavy snow or torrential rain, I never let it die out. This fire is my beating heart

Then let the rain and the fire listen to my tale. For I know these foes, like human beings, have ears too.

When a fawn dies, at least it leaves a pretty hoof print on the forest foor. But my sister departed like the wind that ravaged her. Just a split second’s sigh and then a deafening silence.

 I do not wish to utter the name of our clan. That is why the people in my story have only first names.

The Last Quarter of the Moon quotes

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