An enthralling story of revolution, idealism, and a savage struggle for utopia by one of China's greatest living novelists In 1898 reformist intellectuals in China persuaded the young emperor that it was time to transform his sclerotic empire into a prosperous modern state. The Hundred Days' Reform that followed was a moment of unprecedented change and extraordinary hope—brought to an abrupt end by a bloody military coup. Dashed expectations would contribute to the revolutionary turn that Chinese history would soon take, leading in time to the deaths of millions. Peach Blossom Paradise, set at the time of the reform, is the story of Xiumi, the daughter of a wealthy landowner and former government official who falls prey to insanity and disappears. Days later, a man with a gold cicada in his pocket turns up at their family estate and is inexplicably welcomed as a relative. This mysterious man has a great vision of reforging China as an egalitarian utopia, and he will stop at nothing to make it real. It is his own plans, however, which come to nothing, and his little sister Xiumi is left to take up arms against a Confucian world in which women are chattel. Her campaign for change and her struggle to seize control over her own body are continually threatened by the violent whims of men who claim to be building paradise.

《山河入梦》的故事发生在1952年至1962年间的江南农村。女主人公姚佩佩遭遇家庭变故从上海来到梅城，在浴室卖澡票，偶遇梅城县县长谭功达，并成为他的秘书。谭功达虽然爱慕她，但也只是发乎情，止乎礼。后来姚佩佩遭人强奸后一怒杀死了对方，并开始逃亡。而谭功达对梅城的规划理想也屡遭挫折。受到排挤下放到花家舍后，他惊奇地发现，自己梦寐以求的“桃花源”已经在这里实现……就在他决心去找姚佩佩的同一天，姚佩佩归案被枪决，而他也因为包庇罪和反革命罪在梅城监狱死去。

《春尽江南》是格非的最新长篇力作，也是他呕心沥血十余年、探索一个世纪以来中国社会内在精神衍变的系列长篇小说的收官之作。前两部《人面桃花》和《山河入梦》，写的分别是国民革命早期和五六十年代的中国；而这部《春尽江南》则对准了当下中国的精神现实。这部小说，信息量大，艺术结构高超；主体故事的时间跨度只有一年，而叙述所覆盖的时间幅度则长达二十年。小说通过描写诗人谭端午和律师庞家玉（原名李秀蓉）这对渐入中年的夫妻及其周边一群人近二十年的人生际遇和精神求索，广泛透视了个体在剧变时代面临的各种问题，深度切中了我们时代精神疼痛的症结。