Backed Against the Sea

英譯: 《背海的人(上)》

Translated by Edward Gunn

(New York: East Asia Program Cornell University, September 1993)

With his exceptionally skillful manipulation of words as seen in Family Catastrophe and Backed against the Sea, Wang has established a new paragon in Taiwan Literature. Backed against the Sea is Wang’s second novel, which took him twenty-five years to complete. Applying ultimate deliberation over each choice of words, as well as forms of modern fables, he reflects on fundamental problems in humanity and in the society through one man’s ups and downs, dilemmas and breakthroughs. In the book, the literary style and content are closely intertwined, adopting an even more avant-garde language skill than that in Family Catastrophe. It is the epitome of his art.

Quoted from 臺灣文學網