Life and times of a magical realist

At the ceremony, Liu showed his gratitude to his publishers and translators, especially Genevieve Imbot-Bichet, with whom he has shared a friendship that has lasted more than 20 years. Imbot-Bichet first discovered Liu's works in 1992.

Liu thanked her for bringing his characters into the international domain, which had allowed him to travel and meet foreign readers at literary events around the world.

His books have often been hailed for their sense of "magical realism", something that Liu believes happens in everyday life.

"It's truly tragic, when you mean to write a tragedy, and others choose to read it as a comedy," Liu says.

Liu compares this to Li Xuelian, the protagonist in I Did Not Kill My Husband, who spent 20 years trying prove her innocence, and ends up discussing her plight with a cow, the only living being that believes her.

"Writers are just cows sitting there with Li Xuelian," Liu says.

Xudong Zhang, professor of Comparative Literature and East Asian Studies at New York University, says one task of contemporary Chinese literature is to combine the inner force of the Chinese language with the innate energy of contemporary Chinese everyday life.

"Liu Zhenyun's Someone to Talk to You is an exceptional success in terms of this task, or rather, the attempt to put into language an explanation of the inherent logic of life itself," Zhang says.