Preview
  • The Vagrants

  • By: Yiyun Li
  • Narrated by: Jackie Chung
  • Length: 11 hrs and 26 mins
  • 4.0 out of 5 stars (72 ratings)

Access a growing selection of included Audible Originals, audiobooks, and podcasts.
You will get an email reminder before your trial ends.
Audible Plus auto-renews for $7.95/mo after 30 days. Upgrade or cancel anytime.

The Vagrants

By: Yiyun Li
Narrated by: Jackie Chung
Try for $0.00

$7.95 a month after 30 days. Cancel anytime.

Buy for $21.49

Buy for $21.49

Pay using card ending in
By confirming your purchase, you agree to Audible's Conditions of Use and Amazon's Privacy Notice. Taxes where applicable.

Publisher's summary

Yiyun Li is the winner of the prestigious Hemingway Foundation/PEN Award. The Vagrants, set in 1979 China, is the story of those affected by the execution of a 28-year-old counterrevolutionary. Though suffering, Li's characters nevertheless struggle to maintain hope amid cruel circumstance.

©2009 Yiyun Li (P)2009 Recorded Books, LLC
activate_Holiday_promo_in_buybox_DT_T2

Critic reviews

“Extraordinary . . . beautifully paced, exquisitely detailed . . . In this most amazing first novel, Yiyun Li has found a way to combine the jeweled precision of her short-story-writer’s gaze with a spellbinding vision of the power of the human spirit.” ( Chicago Tribune)
“Powerful and thoughtful . . . a revelation.” ( The Washington Post)
The Vagrants is pure pleasure and a must-read.” ( San Francisco Magazine)

What listeners say about The Vagrants

Average customer ratings
Overall
  • 4 out of 5 stars
  • 5 Stars
    33
  • 4 Stars
    17
  • 3 Stars
    15
  • 2 Stars
    4
  • 1 Stars
    3
Performance
  • 4.5 out of 5 stars
  • 5 Stars
    30
  • 4 Stars
    10
  • 3 Stars
    9
  • 2 Stars
    0
  • 1 Stars
    2
Story
  • 4 out of 5 stars
  • 5 Stars
    28
  • 4 Stars
    10
  • 3 Stars
    8
  • 2 Stars
    4
  • 1 Stars
    3

Reviews - Please select the tabs below to change the source of reviews.

Sort by:
Filter by:
  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    5 out of 5 stars

Beautiful

Yiyun Li has written a beautiful book. Through the lives of individuals in a small sad town in China we see how people suffer thru these terrible political times. I don’t usually like politics in my fiction, but there is no escaping how the political climate has destroyed so many people’s lives. She illustrates this perfectly.

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.

You voted on this review!

You reported this review!

2 people found this helpful

  • Overall
    4 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    1 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    3 out of 5 stars

Lovely prose, good story, deadly narration

What made the experience of listening to The Vagrants the most enjoyable?

The writing is poetic and the images vivid. Characters are interesting and thoughtfully, carefully, gradually revealed. It is a grim story and a grim setting. Very interesting experience of "small city" 1970's China and some of its citizens.

Would you be willing to try another one of Jackie Chung’s performances?

I would not listen to another audiobook narrated by Jackie Chung, however. Her reading is flat--even compared to my own mind's!


Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.

You voted on this review!

You reported this review!

4 people found this helpful

  • Overall
    4 out of 5 stars

Grim but Revealing Novel of China. Very Good.

Yiyun Li is a natural story-teller. Her prose is simple and direct and therein lies its power. The Vagrants is set in the fictional small Chinese town of Muddy River in 1979, right after the end of the brutal Cultural Revolution. It follows the lives of a host of characters from the power elite, down to the poorest vagrants. Their lives are intertwined by geographical identity and the overwhelming impact that Mao’s Cultural Revolution had on society. The characters are unforgettable. This is a profoundly sad novel, but its illumination of the human condition is revealing. The Vagrants is a very good book, and one that painlessly teaches much about China’s recent history.

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.

You voted on this review!

You reported this review!

3 people found this helpful