Desert Hunters
By Xue Mo，Translated by Howard Goldblatt and Sylvia Li-chun Lin.
Desert Hunters is the second novel of Xue Mo' s desert trilogy, in which he extends his detailed and precise observation from the outer life situation of common people in Western China to the world of their soul.
The novel begins with an incident of poaching, and all the plots unfold around a precious well named Pig Belly Well because the water in it is the most important source to the survival of all the living around it, especially for the herders and their sheep. Therefore, where there is sufficient water, there is peace, or there won’t be. In fact, when the water level drops below one hundred meter, there is a series of bloody fighting taking place immediately, which is exactly like human’s self-destruction originated from the greedy desire.
Meanwhile, the writer attaches great importance on dealing with the fierce battles between environmental protectors and poachers, thus expressing his concern and introspection over the mass killing of animals by human, the serious human damage to nature, and the increasingly severe land desertification in China’s western regions.
In 2018, the well-known translator Howard Goldblatt translated the novel into English with his wife Sylvia Li-chun Lin.