20th Century China and the End of a Nomadic Tribe

'A long-time confidante of the rain and snow, I am ninety years old. The rain and snow have weathered me, and I too have weathered them.' 

So begins "The Last Quarter of the Moon" by Chi Zijian, Sherlock & Pages' first-ever Book Club pick. At the end of the twentieth century, an old woman sits among the birch trees and reflects on the joys and tragedies that have befallen her people. A member of the Evenki tribe who wandered the forests of north-eastern China, hers was a life lived in close sympathy with nature at its most beautiful and cruel. Then, in the 1930s, the intimate, secluded world of the tribe is shattered when the Japanese army invades China. The Evenki cannot avoid being pulled into the brutal conflict that marks the beginning of the end of life as they know it.

This is part of the Vintage Earth series, a collection of novels to transform our relationship with the natural world. Each one is a work of creative activism, a blast of fresh air, a seed from which change can grow.

In this YouTube episode, we discuss the book with the Literary Agent Becky Brown