DERSERT HUNTERS

Description

Book Description—Desert Hunters (English Edition)

Author’s Note

The place called Pig’s Belly Well is a world unto itself. Though it wears the outward appearance of the Chinese West, what it reflects is all of humanity. Everyone who steps into Pig’s Belly Well carries a dream—a simple one: to escape poverty. But in the end, every dream collapses. Everyone is ruined, swallowed by their own greed and ignorance.
Why? Because the human heart is a vast hunting ground—unseen, but never still—where the divine and the beast within are locked in constant battle. We are all prey to desire.
As I wrote in the epigraph to Desert Hunters: “On the hunting grounds of the soul, you and I are both the hunted.” —Xuemo

About the Book

In the preface to Desert Hunters, Xuemo opens a window into the brutal heart of China’s desert frontier—a stage known as the Hunting Ground. The novel begins with a pack of wolves watching from the ridge, their cold gaze a reflection of the land’s oldest law: the strong prey on the weak.
To Xuemo, all of existence is a vast hunting field. Every life form, human or animal, is trapped in a chain of hunter and hunted. When storms descend—both tangible and spiritual—hearts are stirred. People wander, struggle, ache, resist. Yet amid the pain, there are moments of hope, awakening, and release. In the bitter battle for pastureland, human nobility and degradation, spiritual greatness and smallness, dignity and pettiness are laid bare.

Core Themes

• Herdsmen open fire on each other for grassland, making wolves the least of their threats.
  • Poachers gnaw away the last scraps of the wilderness in the name of profit.
  • The awakened wanderer, Meng Baye, holds a lantern against the sandstorm, searching for something more vital than survival.
  • When drought drains the last drop of water, human nobility and animal instinct collide—and each choice forces us to confront a haunting question: “When the world becomes a hunting ground, will you settle for being the prey?”

Praise from Critics

“Desert Hunters deserves to be read by those who live beyond the reach of that well. Better this raw account of human nature and struggle than the dizzying fiction of flashy TV dramas.” —Cui Daoyi, former Editor-in-Chief, People’s Literature

“Xuemo doesn’t merely portray an individual life. Through the sculpting of a collective, he tells the story of an entire world.” —Yan Jingming, Editor-in-Chief, Literary Gazette

“Without overt drama, Xuemo makes your blood surge. Without raising his voice, he shakes the reader to the core. This quiet force is what sets Desert Hunters apart.” —Bai Ye, renowned literary critic and researcher at the Institute of Contemporary Literature, Chinese Academy of Social Sciences.

Who Is This Book For?

1. For readers interested in China’s rural northwest and native-soil literature:
   Set in the harsh borderlands of Liangzhou, Desert Hunters offers an unflinching yet poetic portrayal of life on the Pig’s Belly Well—where deserts, Gobi, and oases shape every breath of survival. With vivid detail, it captures how herders live: digging wells, hunting foxes, tending flocks. It’s also a window into a vanishing world of local customs, dialects, and emotional instincts shaped by the land. Through it all runs a spirit of rugged endurance, steeped in hardship, pride, and the quiet strength of the land.
2. Readers concerned with ecology and the human-nature divide:
   One of the core themes of Desert Hunters is the ecological crisis. The novel offers a profound revelation of the harsh realities caused by human activity—such as population growth, overgrazing, competition for water, and reckless land exploitation—which have led to desertification of the grasslands, the drying up of water sources, and a sharp decline in wildlife. Through the conflicts between characters like Meng Baye, Mengzi, and Old Shun and the poachers, as well as the intricate relationships between humans and wild animals such as wolves, foxes, and hares, the novel explores the difficult choices humanity faces between survival and ecological preservation. It serves as a powerful critique of shortsighted, predatory development and delivers a strong ecological warning infused with deep compassion for the real-world consequences.
3. Readers seeking deep human insight and social critique:
   Xuemo excels at portraying the complexities of human nature. Under the harsh pressure of survival, the herders of Pig’s Belly Well fight over scarce water and grazing land, and traits such as greed, selfishness, cunning, and ignorance are magnified. Neighbors turn against each other, schemes unfold, and violent conflicts erupt. Yet amid the turmoil, moments of kindness, resilience, wisdom, and helplessness also emerge. Through this microcosm of a “small society,” the novel offers a profound reflection on the intense upheaval of rural life during the march toward modernization—the collapse of traditional values and the inner struggles and confusion of those at the bottom of the social ladder. It stands as a powerful work of social critique.
4. Readers who appreciate weighty, thought-provoking fiction:
   Desert Hunters is not a light or cheerful read. Its tone is somber and weighty, its language plain yet powerful, infused with the scent of the earth and a deep sense of compassion. It confronts the harshness of reality head-on, does not shy away from the darker sides of human nature, and offers no illusions or comforts. The novel pursues both intellectual depth and artistic authenticity. Through the fate of a single grassland, it reflects on profound questions of human existence—ecology, survival, and morality—offering readers a deeply affecting and thought-provoking experience.
5. Students and scholars of modern Chinese literature or ecological fiction:
   As one of the “Desert Trilogy” — alongside Desert Rites and White Tiger Pass — Desert Hunters stands as a representative work of Xuemo and a landmark in contemporary Chinese rural and ecological literature. Its rich use of regional dialects, vivid portrayal of local culture, profound exploration of ecological themes, and mature realist technique all contribute to its high academic and literary value, making it a significant subject for study in the fields of modern Chinese literature, regional writing, and eco-criticism.

If you’re willing to quiet your heart and follow Xuemo’s pen into the vast, desolate desert, to feel the weight of survival, the complexity of human nature, and the lament of an ailing ecology, Desert Hunters will offer a reading experience both powerful and thought-provoking. It is less a novel than a mirror—one that reflects the fragile bond between humanity and nature, and the profound limitations within ourselves.