Mourning a Breast (Releases on July 9, 2024.)

“This superb work of autofiction from Xi Xi (1937–2022), which was originally published in 1992, melds an account of the author’s breast cancer with a reflection on the subjective nature of translation…. Xi Xi’s matter-of-fact prose and in-depth analysis are deeply satisfying. This is a must.” —Publishers Weekly, starred review

“Xi Xi’s fascinating imagination and brave avant-garde spirit make her an important and distinctive figure in last century’s Sinophone literature. Her knowledge, experience, and generosity offer unique humanitarian value to her writing. I highly recommend her.” —Mo Yan

“The breast is the epicenter, where the complexities of society, literature, translation, personal care, history, art, and identity converge and transmute into a deeply felt and profoundly original narrative. Mourning A Breast is the story of Xi Xi's own experience, translated by Jennifer Feeley with precision and a subtle undertone of celebration, a generous invitation to navigate the depths of womanhood, of cancer, with humor and unflinching honesty.” —Xuan Juliana Wang

“Mourning a Breast engages an innovative mix of writing drawn from multiple genres and disciplines, all centered on the exploration of an unwelcome sign—a tumor inside a breast. Xi Xi transports us from the technique of stitching skin to the process of splicing film for an experimental movie, and moves freely between her post-surgery feelings about her renovated bathroom and a public debate on the architectural design of the Hong Kong Cultural Centre. Xi Xi would be delighted to read Feeley’s attentive and even playful translation, especially given that translation is one of the book’s key motifs. A brilliant reader of her own illness, Xi Xi regards a literary work, a person’s body, and the earth itself in need of continuous translation and interpretation.” —Dorothy Tse

Xi Xi (1937–2022) was born in Shanghai and moved to Hong Kong in 1950. Over the course of her career, she wrote several books of fiction, poetry, and nonfiction, as well as numerous screenplays and newspaper and magazine columns. In 2019, she became the first writer from Hong Kong to win Newman Prize for Chinese Literature, and her literary career was the subject of the 2015 documentary film My City. Upon its initial publication in Taiwan in 1992, Mourning a Breast was named by the China Times as one of the best ten books of the year.

Jennifer Feeley is the translator of Xi Xi’sMourning a Breast, Not Written Words: Selected Poetry of Xi Xi, andCarnival of Animals: Xi Xi’s Animal Poems, as well as Chen Jiatong’s White Fox series and Wong Yi's Cantonese chamber opera librettoWomen Like Us. Her forthcoming translations include Lau Yee-Wa'sTongue less and Xi Xi'sMy City. She is the recipient of the 2017 Lucien Stryk Asian Translation Prize and a 2019 National Endowment for the Arts Literature Translation Fellowship.

西　西　

　　原名張彥，廣東中山人，一九三八年生於上海，香港葛量洪學院畢業，曾任教職，現專事文學創作與研究，為《素葉文學》同人。著作有洪範版《候鳥》、《象是笨蛋》、《母魚》、《耳目書》等十餘種，文類典型豐富，源頭深入古今中外，所以風格變化生動，為當代最勇於試驗新手法突破新境界之名家之一。