Set in post-World War II Shanghai, The Song of Everlasting Sorrow follows the adventures of Wang Qiyao, a girl born of the longtong, the crowded, labyrinthine alleys of Shanghai's working-class neighborhoods. Infatuated with the glitz and glamour of 1940s Hollywood, Wang Qiyao seeks fame in the Miss Shanghai beauty pageant, and this fleeting moment of stardom becomes the pinnacle of her life. During the next four decades, Wang Qiyao indulges in the decadent pleasures of pre-liberation Shanghai, secretly playing mahjong during the antirightist Movement and exchanging lovers on the eve of the Cultural Revolution. Surviving the vicissitudes of modern Chinese history, Wang Qiyao emerges in the 1980s as a purveyor of "old Shanghai"--a living incarnation of a new, commodified nostalgia that prizes splendor and sophistication--only to become embroiled in a tragedy that echoes the pulpy Hollywood noirs of her youth. From the violent persecution of communism to the liberalism and openness of the age of reform, this sorrowful tale of old China versus new, of perseverance in the face of adversity, is a timeless rendering of our never-ending quest for transformation and beauty.

王安憶--1954年齣生於南京，1955年隨母到滬。1970年赴安徽插隊落戶，1972年考入徐州地區文工團，1978年調迴上海，任《兒童時代》小說編輯，1987年進上海作傢協會專業創作至今。自1976年發錶第一篇散文，至今齣版發錶有小說《雨，沙沙沙》、《本次列車終點站》、《流逝》、《小鮑莊》、《叔叔的故事》、《69屆初中生》、《長恨歌》等短、中、長篇，約有400萬字，以及若乾散文、文學理論。其中一度獲全國短篇小說奬，二度獲全國中篇小說奬。翻譯為外國語的有英、法、荷、德、日、捷、韓等文字。