Hard Like Water is a thrilling story about an erotic affair during China's Cultural Revolution.

Returning to his hometown—and his wife—soldier Aijun sees a young woman, Hongmei, wandering barefoot along the railway tracks in the late-afternoon sun. From that moment on, Aijun and Hongmei spend their days and nights writing pamphlets and attending rallies: they are the engines of history. But soon their sexual and revolutionary fervour merge and a crazed new love explodes between them.

The party bosses are impressed by the ardour of the pair's work. Emboldened, the couple build a 'tunnel of love'—to further the revolution, of course, but also to connect their homes for their secret rendezvous. What will happen to their dreams of a life together?

Hard Like Water is an irresistible tale about sex and revolution, and a compelling drama about the nature of political power—by one of China's greatest contemporary writers.

Yan Lianke was born in 1958 in Henan Province, China. He is the author of numerous novels and short-story collections, including Serve the People!, Dream of Ding Village, Lenin's Kisses, The Four Books, The Explosion Chronicles and The Day the Sun Died. He has been awarded the Hua Zhong World Chinese Literature Prize, the Lao She Literary Award, the Dream of the Red Chamber Award and the Franz Kafka Prize. He has also been shortlisted for the International Man Booker Prize, the Principe de Asturias Prize for Letters, the Independent Foreign Fiction Prize, the FT/Oppenheimer Fund Emerging Voices Award and the Prix Femina Étranger. The Day the Sun Died won the Dream of the Red Chamber Award for the World's Most Distinguished Novel in Chinese. His memoir Three Brothers was published in 2020. He lives in Beijing.

Carlos Rojas has translated seven books by Yan Lianke.