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If last year's hottest book was nominated, there would certainly be a travelogue, The Lost Satellite.
This book is written as the world's most unpopular attraction, but it became one of the hottest bestsellers last year, and has been rated as the best book of the year by sina reading, Sohu culture, Southern Metropolis Daily, New Weekly and many authoritative media, and it is also ranked first in the annual list of Douban chinese literature non-fiction.
Travel Literature of the Year The Lost Satellite
Through "The Lost Satellite", many people have a real understanding of Central Asia for the first time, and thus recognize Liu Zichao, a travel writer who has been walking and writing for more than a decade. Some people chased his travelogue like a drama, saying that this belonged to the "last desirable stop series", and even Mai Jia, Yu Minhong, Xu Zhiyuan, Luo Xin, Li Jian, Lao Wolf, and Shi Hang were his loyal readers!
Book reviewer Shi Hang said that Liu Zichao's book has a sense of wandering, bluntly saying "I like it".
Luo Xin, a professor of history at Peking University, believes that Liu Zichao's work "sets a benchmark for future travel writing."
Xu Zhiyuan, the host of "Thirteen Invitations", directly claimed that Liu Zichao was "the most outstanding travel writer of this generation".
The no-man's land of the Pamir Plateau, the drug trading center of Myanmar, the nuclear explosion site where four hundred and fifty-six nuclear tests were conducted... The travel writer was always able to constantly arrive at various isolated places and witness spectacles that ordinary people could not witness. Wherever he went, he could always go deep into the local streets and alleys, talk to people from all walks of life, and then write stories about what he saw and heard on the journey.
The One-Way Street Literary Awards awarded him the honor of "Young Writer of the Year" for "entering the scene in the flesh, reproducing the journey with literature, and refreshing the coordinates and horizons of our viewing of today's world."
During the epidemic, Liu Zichao's travelogue has accompanied many people who cannot travel-
"Suitable for being stuck at home during the epidemic", even want to eat the grilled buns in the book.
"At the moment when you can't step out of the country", opening Liu Zichao's book is a "journey of the soul".
A year after the publication of The Lost Satellite, the pandemic is still raging around the world, and traveling is still a luxury. But fortunately, we still have books and stories from afar — this time, Liu Zichao led us to the place: Europe.
The book is Liu Zichao's first travelogue, Arriving Before Midnight, which chronicles his two wanderings across the continent.
Previously, the book was out of print on the market for various reasons, and even second-hand books were speculated to hundreds of pieces, a premium of more than ten times, but there were still many people willing to spend a lot of money to buy.
Now, the new "Arrival Before Midnight" has finally been reprinted, and we can finally experience why his travels and writings can impress well-informed masters such as Mai Jia, Li Jian, and Xu Zhiyuan.
Opening the book, the first thing that attracts you is a beautiful road map.
He did not go to rich Western European countries such as France, Spain, and Italy, but in central European countries such as Poland, Austria, hungary and other central European countries that few people talked about, and even the most familiar Germany and Italy were only the beginning and end of the journey.
In Liu Zichao's view, although Central Europe has a weak sense of existence, in fact, many fascinating things have happened in history: she once established a huge Ottoman Empire, the fuse of the two world wars was ignited here, and the Cold War was divided into two, witnessing the vicissitudes and dispersion of history for thousands of years.
What's more, there are more unknown possibilities than the mature transportation and travel industries in Western Europe. Budapest, Prague, Pecs, Brno, Salzburg, Trieste, these familiar and unfamiliar countries and cities, show a different side of Europe.
Liu Zichao was on the go
During his travels, Liu Zichao can always capture hidden details and dig up the moving secrets behind them.
For example, while wandering the streets of Bęrócław, Poland, he came across a statue of a dwarf in several places. Ordinary people may not be the same thing, but Liu Zichao's itinerary that day became a journey to find dwarfs, and he traveled all over the city to record various forms of dwarfs.
But it wasn't just for fun scavenger hunts, he also discovered the special meaning behind the dwarfs— it turned out that the dwarfs were set up by locals to rebel against the government during a special period. When people are not allowed to express their opinions freely, they secretly install playful dwarfs in public places and carry out gentle protests.
It is said that there were more than seventy such dwarfs in Buffroclaw, and Liu Zichao eventually found twenty-eight —that is, twenty-eight miniature protest movements.
Statues of dwarfs on the streets of Wroclaw
In addition to careful observation, Liu Zichao always has a gentle gaze that embraces reality - the day he first arrived in Berlin, it was an annual gay parade, and the streets were full of gay and transvestites in costumes, and he joined and enjoyed it.
He wrote: "The atmosphere of the parade reached its peak at the Brandenburg Gate. Someone set off fireworks. Rising smoke obscures the sculptures on the Brandenburg Gate, as if these ancient gods had just experienced the bloody storm of mythology and finally returned to the world led by gays and transvestites. ”
In just a few words, the modern and ancient of Europe are perfectly blended at this moment, which is Liu Zichao's writing.
Berlin Gay Parade
As he walks through the streets of Prague at night, all the literary ghosts that belong to the city flash: Kafka fantasizes about how a man turns into a cockroach in his office, Hašekfu writes "Good Soldier Shuaik" at the bar of a tavern, and the apartment where Hrabar lived is still lit up...
Europe's deep literary tradition may be hidden in an inconspicuous old house on the street, but he stopped to look at it and found a moving literary past.
And Budapest, Vienna, Bratislava, Krakow – cities we've heard about countless times before– now he puts us in the middle of it, but instead of being busy with life and work like the locals, he shuttles around at will, carefully looking at the scenery along the way, or making friends with the locals, for example, in underground taverns where only locals go, and having a drink with them for their health.
The streets of Central Europe
Writer Mai Jia spoke highly after reading the book: "Liu Zichao's location has become more and more impossible to ignore, his unique adventurous spirit, coupled with patient and refined narrative power, almost has an anti-ancient magic." Literature and art are afraid of old age, and Zi Chao is as famous as his name, and all the old streets and old cities that he has touched with his pen have given birth to new ideas and poetry. ”
Through the texture of the novel, the history and reality, the times and the daily weave into improvised jazz-like exquisite and free brushstrokes, "Arriving Before Midnight" presents us with a beautiful, poetic and unique Europe, giving people a fascinating and infatuated reading experience.
Mai Jia recommendation: Liu Zichao's location has become more and more negligible, he starts from travel, it is easy to be ignored, but his dark-scented personality, unique adventurous spirit, with his patient and refined narrative power, almost has an anti-ancient magic: under the sun is a new thing. Literature and art are afraid of old age, and Zi Chao is as famous as his name, and all the old streets and old cities that he has touched with his pen have given birth to new ideas and poetry.
However, although it is a travelogue, it is not only about Europe, but also a collection of stories about the encounters between people.
In the book, you will meet many people who meet unexpectedly. Those detailed passages of dialogue make them so vivid — they are not Hungarians, not Poles, not Czechs, but ordinary people who are as energetic and confused as you and me.
In the memorial at Auschwitz, a Russian uncle came to look for the files of the deceased: his family had been locked up here and then heard nothing.
The physics teacher who met him in the restaurant inexplicably invited him to dinner at home, and inexplicably said the secret that the family had kept for half a century.
These passers-by and stories on the road made Liu Zichao realize that the real trip is not only to witness the wonderful spectacle, but also to witness the dullness and suffering, just to understand that "there are still people living like this in the world", it is enough to make the heart broad.
People met on the road
In Brno, he meets the lonely woman Maria, and the comfort of mutual appreciation flashes between the conversations, which is the accidental collision of two lonely souls. For a moment, you're even speculating or expecting something to happen to them — it's not a novel, but it leaves a blank and aftertaste like a novel that makes you wonder: What's next?
A glance at each other on the road, a meaningful conversation, or a dusty verse in an old book, all hide the folds of history, the story of life, and the revelation of the heart.
In the past, we always thought that travelogue was a punch card strategy, or a small fresh running account. But Liu Zichao's travel can always restore the local humanistic charm in its original way, and it is full of unknowns and romance like a novel.
The famous singer Li Jian said: "Starting from "The Lost Satellite", I refocused on travel literature, or Liu Zichao broke my prejudice against travelogue. ”
In his opinion, the new book "Arriving Before Midnight" is still wonderful, and after reading it, you will know more about Europe than those who have visited Europe: "Many places in the book are places that I have not been to, but I do not feel strange, on the contrary, it is kind, as if describing the places and lives I am familiar with, the past, the present and even the future." ”
Li Jian recommended: "Arriving Before Midnight" is still wonderful, what he recorded is simple and vivid, but more than that, what interests me more is what he thinks, because the author's own vision, thoughts and even heart determine the depth and meaning of the trip. Many of the places in the book are places I have not been to, but I do not feel strange, on the contrary, intimate, as if describing the places and lives I am familiar with, past, present and even the future.
Today, we are always anxious to speed up our arrival at some point, but we ignore the importance of the process. In Liu Zichao's journey, there is no absolute destination to go, because every scenery along the way is worth nostalgia, and everyone who passes by carries a story.
As he writes in his book: "The greatest uncertainty in travel is not arrival, but how to get there." In the final analysis, travel or life is the process of life that solves how to arrive again and again. ”
"Arriving Before Midnight" is a travelogue, but also a spiritual wandering to escape the burden and find meaning, showing us the life process of how to arrive again and again: to reach the fullness of the world, but also to reach the vastness of the heart.
When the young mind crashes into ancient Central Europe, the path is full of unknowns and longings, swaying with midnight-like mystery and throbbing. Now, the journey is about to restart, open the book, leave all the presuppositions behind, and follow Liu Zichao to set off and arrive together.
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