The Children of This Village Delight in Wildfire and Death

Electric Literature has published a new excerpt from Zhang Guixing's novel The Crossing of the Boars, translated by Christopher G Rea and Julie Ming Wang. The piece, titled 'Father's Feet,' is a work of fiction set in a Malaysian kampong, following a boy named Bag-rhong as a wildfire sweeps through his village on the same day he discovers his father has died by suicide. As Electric Literature presents it, the story weaves that loss together with memories of the father's remarkable resourcefulness despite having lost both arms. This is a literary excerpt, not a news report, and it includes graphic depictions of suicide and animal death.

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