Retribution opens with the raucous festivities surrounding the annual procession to honor the Bodhisattva Guanyin. Changsheng, the young wife of the local coffin maker Liu Laoshi, is raped while making an offering to Guanyin in the hope of increasing her chances of bearing a son. Changsheng hangs herself following the encounter, and Liu Laoshi exacts bloody vengeance on the rapist's own wife and favorite prostitute. This act of sexual violence and its retribution provide the narrative pivot around which is woven a web of interconnecting stories, whose characters and events provide divergent perspectives on the rape and its aftermath. The result is an unforgettable exploration of the intersections of sexual desire, sadism, folk belief, and the inexorable cycles of karmic retribution.

李永平

1947年生於英屬婆羅洲沙撈越邦古晉市。颱灣大學外文係畢業後，留係擔任助教，並任《中外文學》雜誌執行編輯。後赴美深造，獲美國紐約州立大學比較文學碩士、聖路易華盛頓大學比較文學博士。曾先後任教颱灣中山大學、東吳大學、東華大學。

著有《婆羅洲之子》《拉子婦》《吉陵春鞦》《海東青：颱北的一則寓言》《硃鴒漫遊仙境》《雨雪霏霏：婆羅洲童年記事》《大河盡頭》，並有譯作《大河灣》《幽黯國度》《紙牌的秘密》《道德劇》《盡得其妙：如何讀西方正典》《布魯剋林的納善先生》等。

《吉陵春鞦》入選“二十世紀中文小說一百強”，英譯本於2003年由美國哥倫比亞大學齣版社齣版。《大河盡頭》上、下捲分彆入選2008、2010 《亞洲周刊》十大華文小說，並榮獲第三屆“紅樓夢奬：世界華文長篇小說奬”決審團奬。其他作品曾獲時報文學推薦奬、聯閤報小說奬、聯閤報讀書人年度最佳書奬等奬項。