Balzac and the Little Seamstress

This book is by Dai Sijie, a Chinese author who has lived in France for many years and writes in French. It's a short story of two boys who are sent to a rural area of China to be re-educated as so many were in the 70s. They manage to get hold of a collection of Western books in Chinese and the story is based on what happens to the boys because of these books.

I rather liked this book. It's only about 200 pages so it's quite fast to read.