A review by abookishtype
Heart Sutra by Yan Lianke

challenging dark emotional informative reflective medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? It's complicated
• Diverse cast of characters? No
• Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

4.0

Yahui was found on the doorstep of a rural Buddhist convent and has known nothing else for most of her eighteen years of life. Her lack of worldliness makes her a perfect vehicle for Yan Lianke’s satirical Heart Sutra, which explores the way that five of China’s religions—Buddhism, Daoism, Islam, Protestantism, and Catholicism—have had to contort themselves to survive the country’s political order and corruption. The uneasy relationship between the religions and Chinese communism leaves Yahui struggling to decide if the deities are real, if the secular world is a better fit, and which set of rules she should follow to be a good person...

Read the rest of my review at A Bookish Type.