Set in a provincial Chinese city near the dark end of the Cultural Revolution, this lovely, wistful book describes a boy's intellectual, political and sexual awakening. Now an adult, Love Liu recalls the confusing years from ages 12 to 17 when he witnessed political purges, executions and suicides, endured his parents' rage, ran away from home, fell in love and, most important, learned English from Second Prize Wang, this last being the sole enterprise to provide Love Liu with a degree of stability in his life.

Unlike other adults in Urumchi, Second Prize Wang, the boy's mentor, dresses in a tailored suit, wears eyeglasses and cologne, and owns an English dictionary. Though not without failings, the teacher -- seen through Love Liu's eyes -- provides the novel's moral center. Generally a model of rectitude and decorum, he encourages Love Liu and other students to dream of a world beyond the Tianshan Mountains, where words such as "compassion" and "love" mean something.

During Mao's Cultural Revolution, such dreaming can be construed by the authorities, as well as by neighbors, as reactionary thinking. Branded by his superiors as "morally suspect," the English teacher pays for his bourgeois views, just as Love Liu's architect parents pay for theirs, or Class Supervisor Guo Pei-qing, "a timid man from a 'bad' political background in Shanghai," pays for his. All of China suffers from fear, dread and hunger during this tragic, brutal era. "Everyone was skinny in those days, except this guy ... Chairman Mao," Love Liu recalls.

Despite the government's exploitation and oppression of its subjects, Love Liu's hope for a better, more intellectual life never dies. The snow-capped Tianshans, the alpine meadows, the weather itself inspire the boy to look to the future. "You may have never spent a summer in Urumchi, where summer is gorgeous, deserving of its own poem -- and in classical Chinese no less," he says despite the horror and deprivation surrounding him. Ahjitai, a lovely older woman whom both the boy and his teacher desire, also comforts Love Liu, especially during the aftershocks of an earthquake.

If the excesses of the Cultural Revolution did not destroy people outright, they exacerbated their weaknesses. In this novel, few characters, Love Liu included, find what they seek in life. Contentment comes in small ways and with a price.

This said, Wang Gang's "English" lovingly reflects the capacity of the human spirit to endure. A major bestseller in China, the book will break your heart.

Anthony Bukoski's most recent short-story collections are "North of the Port" and "Twelve Below Zero: New and Expanded Edition." He lives in Superior, Wis.