“All children understand what the first glimpse of the white night-blooming lily means,” declares Xiong Liang’s mythical and inventive series starter Lost in Peach Blossom Paradise). It’s a sign of summer’s end. As a return to school draws near, Little Yu spends one last day by the river, where she follows a trail of peach blossom petals floating upon the water into a dense, mysterious forest. After crossing a stone railing marked by a sign forbidding entry, she encounters several enigmatic trials designed to lead trespassers astray—screaming red fruits, a mass of clouds, animals shouting amid a maze of streams, a lonely guardian who plays frightening music. Could it be that a legendary paradise lies beyond?
Lost in Peach Blossom Paradise unfolds in dreamlike fashion, as graceful as flowing water. Liang’s folkloric prose, translated from Chinese by Chloe Garcia Roberts, is perfect for any reader who loves to savor language: An ancient dog who is petted for the first time in centuries falls asleep “as deeply and deliciously as a sweet potato nestled in autumn soil”; an illusionist runs down a tunnel full of “fireflies and slugs that emitted faint glimmers, like whispered secrets.” The dramatic composition of Liang’saccompanying watercolor illustrations—which are masterly as independent works of art—emphasize this book’s marvelous and surreal sense of escapism.
With the sublime beauty and poetic rhythm of Hayao Miyazaki’s Spirited Away, Lost in Peach Blossom Paradise is the kind of classic that truly endures on one’s shelf, to be read again and again. It’s hard to turn the final page and leave such a gorgeous book—luckily, there are several future installments in store.