10 literary works on World War II

Remembering 1942 by Liu Zhenyun. [Photo/Agencies]

Title: Remembering 1942

Author: Liu Zhenyun

Country: China

Published: 1987

The plot is set in the winter of 1942, during China's War of Resistance against Japanese Aggression, also a period of famine in Central China's Henan province.

The protagonist, Master Fan, is a wealthy landlord in a village in Henan. When others were struggling to meet their ends, Fan had plenty to feed upon, but his course of life changes when a group of bandits storms by, robs the village and burns it down to the ground.

Fan is left with no choice but to flee his hometown, with his family, and head westwards in search of food. During the flight, Fan continues to see his family members, and the fellow villagers, die of hunger one by one. He is eventually forced to sell his daughter to a brothel house in return for food, and the ensured survival of his daughter. With limited help from the government, Fan begins to lose hope and decides to head back so he could die somewhere closer to home. On his way, he meets a little girl weeping on the body of her dead father. Fan tries to comfort the girl, but the child says she is not crying because of her father's passing, but because everyone she knew has died and all those remaining are strangers to her. Touched by the girl's words, Fan decides to adopt her as his granddaughter, and continued his journey westwards with the girls' hand in his.