One Man’s Bible

One Man’s Bible was published in Chinese in 1999 and in English in 2003. Set during the Cultural Revolution, it follows an alter ego of the author who reflects on earlier experiences. Its chapters alternate between life during that period and the narrator’s later life, as he looks for freedom and tries to keep it. Gao Xingjian won the 2000 Nobel Prize in Literature. Ma Jian says the book shows how an ordinary man lived through the Cultural Revolution.