Cross-cultural connections

Chinese authors will join fellow writers from around the world at the nation's biggest literary feast. While some will revisit old haunts, others are hoping to make the discovery of a lifetime. Chitralekha Basu and Yang Guang report.

The book carnival season across China starts on Saturday, with Tom Keneally of Schindler's Ark fame raising a toast to the power of the written word at the Capital Literary Festival in Beijing. For four weeks it will be raining authors, who are arriving from as far away as Reykjavik, Iceland, to take part in events across six locations - two in Beijing, one each in Shanghai, Hong Kong, Chengdu and Suzhou. Here we preview some of the favorites.

Yan Lianke, China