against the Cultural Revolution, it shows the startlingly intimate reach of politics in that period even affects – and infects – their love.'

It has that real simplicity about people trying to love each other across class. She said: 'It's a beautiful love story, almost like a Romeo and Juliet. Lennie Goodings of Virago bought it without knowing a word of Chinese – and was relieved to discover that it lived up to her expectations when she commissioned an English translation. In a publishing world where an author's identity is often more important than their talent, it is striking that publishers as far afield as Italy, Norway, Brazil and Israel have responded to the writing alone. Her central character – a young woman from a 'politically questionable family' who falls in love with the son of a general – is based on a real person with names and places disguised. She tells her readers that it was inspired by a true story. She is thought to be in her fifties or sixties, if only because her insight into the Cultural Revolution suggests someone who experienced first hand the political and social persecution of Mao Zedong's last decade. All that is known about the author is that she leads a reclusive life in Florida, having gone there to study. Under the Hawthorn Tree, a tragic love story set during the Cultural Revolution, is written under the pen name of Ai Mi. Yet none of the publishers, translators or editors knows the author's identity. Some publishers even bought it before reading a translation. It has been snapped up by publishers in 15 countries who have been impressed by the fact that it has sold more than a million copies in China and inspired a film by an Oscar-winning Chinese director. A novel by an anonymous Chinese author living in America, which started life as a blog, has become a worldwide publishing sensation.

Under the hawthorn tree book