Julian Barnes, The Porcupine, 1992

A fictional satire of the fall of Communism in an unnamed East European country, loosely based on the trial of former Bulgarian Communist president Todor Zhivkov. Bulgarians are suspicious of Westerners writing about their country but The Porcupine turned out to be a bestseller there. It also became a minor footnote to Communist Bulgarian history when Zhivkov himself requested a copy to read while under house arrest; also, his prosecutor Krasimir Zhekov later identified with the persona of the book’s fictional prosecutor Peter Solinsky when he later introduced himself to Barnes, declaring “I am Peter Solinsky.” This is a memorably good a book. It’s relentlessly cynical, angry, funny and sharply observed, and cleverly blurs any easy distinctions the reader can make between what constitutes either good or bad ideological politics. Barnes puts across a vital, incipient energy very easily in the first few pages and then carries it through right to the aftermath. A very well crafted novel indeed, recommended unreservedly if only because it’s vastly more entertaining that its subject matter might suggest.  PY

MORE ON JULIAN BARNES : AUTHOR'S WEBSITE  |  WIKIPEDIA

Eileen Chang, Lust, Caution, 1979

This short novel was begun in the early 1950s but not completed and published until 1979, and Ang Lee’s film won several trophies at Taiwan’s Golden Horse Awards. Set in occupied Shanghai during the Second World War it’s the story of a young student’s role in the entrapment of a Chinese minister who is a sympathiser of the occupying Japanese. The turbulent Chinese politics of the time always formed the backdrop to Chang’s novels and was never usually the story itself, so the political theme makes Lust, Caution an unusual story for her. It’s a convincingly told tale, and one in which the motives of all the characters are morally dubious. Chang was one of the most popular writers in China during her life but is largely out of print now in the English-speaking world, though Penguin are releasing a few titles in their Modern Classics series which, on the strength of this, will certainly be worth reading.   PY