Datura

Author: Lei Ligang
Publisher:
Publish Date: 2003-08-01
Features: The Mandala can be said to be one of the most outstanding novels about university life to have emerged in the past 20 years. Lei Ligang writes with keen insight and sensitivity, and what is particularly rare is his pure passion for literature. This novel is the secret history of desires and honor among a group of young people aged 18 to 25, the secret history of a couple's exploration of love and sex, the secret history of a dangerous city imagined as "Docity," and the secret history of a teenage paradise that appears under the guise of "DUniversity."
Boys Ma Song falls in love with a girl named Luo Man whom he shouldn't have loved since his freshman year. Their relationship is full of uncertainty yet also passion. After graduation, they end their love story that echoes with melancholy, ultimately becoming a couple, yet they still do not achieve a happy ending. Eight years of love, finally, still dissipates like smoke, making us wonder whether love is truly eternal or if, like fireworks, it only blooms for a moment. When you think you possess love, it may no longer be love.