Exploring dirty truths about purity

Author Xue Yiwei portrays a day in the life of a single, elderly woman in the novel Empty Nest [Photo/China Daily]

Xue Yiwei's Empty Nest tells the story of a swindled elderly woman.

Xue Yiwei's novel Empty Nest considers a novel notion－purity isn't always good.

The book uses a narrative brimming with analogies related to ideas of filth and cleanliness in portraying a day in the life of a single, elderly woman, who receives a phone call from a fraudster pretending to be a policeman.

The swindler claims the woman is involved in a fraud case and must transfer her savings into a bank account designated by the public security bureau to ensure its safety and tell no one－not even her family.

Her son and daughter detect something strange in her voice when they call her. But she doesn't divulge anything.

The call creates psychological conflict in the woman, whose morality makes her loath to question a cop. Her upbringing during revolutionary times－the plot is punctuated with flashbacks－has shaped her understanding of right and wrong, authority and how people treat one another.

Ultimately, the idealistic past's absurdity contrasts with the present's practical realities to make the book one of China's best attempts to fuse realism and surrealism in literature.

The woman's preposterous obsession with purity remains a theme throughout.