War Trash, the extraordinary new novel by the award-winning author of Waiting, paints an intimate portrait of a young man coming of age against a sweeping canvas of destruction.

 Set in 1951-3, War Trash is the story of Yu Yuan, a young Chinese officer sent by Mao with a corps of 'volunteers' to help shore up the Communist! side in Korea……

 War Trash, the extraordinary new novel by the award-winning author of Waiting, paints an intimate portrait of a young man coming of age against a sweeping canvas of destruction. Set in 1951-3, War Trash is the story of Yu Yuan, a young Chinese officer sent by Mao with a corps of 'volunteers' to help shore up the Communist! side in Korea. When Yu is captured by the Americans, Iiis command of English thrusts him into the role of unofficial iinterpreter in the psychological warfare that defines the POW camp. And, desperate to return to his beloved fiancee and his widowed mother, Yu Yuan finds himself trapped not only by barbed wire but also by politics... Taking us into the heart of the camp, Ha Jin renders brilliantly the complex world the prisoners inhabit. As Yu and his fellow captives struggle to create some sense of community, only the idea of home holds.out the promise of a return to their former selves. But by the end of this gripping, haunting novel the very concept of home will be more profoundly altered than they can even begin to imagine.  War Trash continues Ha Jin's prize-winning sequence of novels exploring modern China's life and times.

PROLOGUE

1.CROSSING THE YALU

2.OUR COLLAPSE SOUTH OF THE THIRTY-EIGHTH PARALLEL

3.THREE MONTHS OF GUERRILLA LIFE

4.DR. GREENE

5.COMPOUND 72, ON KOJE ISLAND

6.FATHER WOODWORTH

7.BETRAYAL

8.A DINNER

9.BEFORE THE SCREENING

10.THE SCREENING

11.COMPOUND 602

12.STAGING A PLAY

13.AN UNUSUAL REQUEST

14.A TEST

15.MEETING WITH MR.PARK

16.MEETING WITH GENERAL BELL

17.THE ABDUCTION OF GENERAL SELL

18. AFTER THE VICTORY

19.THE APPREHENSION OF COMMISSAR PEI

20.ARRIVAL AT CHEJU ISLAND

21.COMMUNICATION AND STUDY

22.THE PEI CODE

23.THE VISIT OF A YOUNG WOMAN

24.RAISING THE NATIONAL FLAG

25.ANOTHER SACRIFICED LIFE

26.KILLI

27.A TALK WITH CAPTAIN LARSEN

28. ENTERTAINMENT AND WORK

29.A SURPRISE

30.THE FINAL ORDER

31.AT THE REREGISTRATION

32.BACK TO CHEJU

33.CONFUSION

34.A GOOD COMPANION

35.IN THE DEMILITARIZED ZONE

36.A DIFFERENT FATE

AUTHOR'S NOTE

ACKNOWLEDGMENTS