"A quest to discover the remaining artifacts and present-day incarnations of classical Chinese culture takes Man Booker International-winner Krasznahorkai on an illuminating, melancholy journey through contemporary China in this . . . dazzling travel memoir."-- "Publishers Weekly"

"Destruction and Sorrow Beneath the Heavens is a travelogue in the broadest sense of the term, and like all great travelogues it links a change in scenery to a change in emotional state. . . . Krasznahorkai has transformed and transcended; he has changed from an angry prophet to a wide-eyed archivist and a hopeful seeker."-- "New Republic"

"In Destruction and Sorrow beneath the Heavens, Asia is once again at the center of Krasznahorkai's
attention, but this time he sends his protagonist Stein to China to discover if and how the country's classical culture lives on in the twenty-first century. . . . Krasznahorkai skillfully balances Stein's melodramatic quest for the remnants of metaphysical meaning with an ironic mode that exposes this endeavor while also harboring a certain degree of sympathy for it."-- "Slavic and East European Journal"

"Masterfully translated by Mulzet, Destruction and Sorrow beneath the Heavens . . . bridges the dark visions of Krasznahorkai's earlier work to the Buddhist-like meditations of his more recent books. . . . Krasznahorkai allows himself to take pleasure in appreciating the past rather than decrying it's loss. . . . Less of a travelogue than a personal document for the writer, a critical artistic step that has taken him to a more sublime era of his career."-- "Frieze"



"The narrator travels through modern 'global', yet somehow still Maoist, China, trying to reach the past, trying to see what remains of the Middle Kingdom's ancient cultural riches, and trying to reach the city of Jiuhuashan (always asking: 'This still isn't Jiuhuashan, is it?'). But the last thing Krasznahorkai is ever going to offer us is false hope or neat resolutions."--Epler, Barba