Pre-loved.
Royal Format.
A boy grows up in a small village in south China listening to stories about the Colonel: some say he was a legendary army doctor during the war, some say he was a traitor to the Party, other say he is sex-crazed. The stories are bawdy and mesmerizing, always larger than life. Yet in reality, few know the true man that lies behind the rumours.
From these disparate sources, the boy tries to piece together who the Colonel really is, just as he himself grows up in a rapidly changing China. It is not until many years later, when the boy also becomes a middle-aged man, that he is able to look back and finally solve the puzzle.