Three Brothers is Yan’s first work of nonfiction to appear in English. It will offer new territory for his American readers, who will begin to understand the real-life man behind his acclaimed novels. There has been a huge surge of interest in Yan Lianke’s writing after Jiayang Fan’s profile appeared in the New Yorker in October 2018. His dissenting voice is all the more important as Xi Jinping’s regime becomes ever more restrictive. Yan Lianke figures each year as a favored candidate for the...