The English version was translated by Bruce Humes and published by Penguin Random House in 2013.

The Independent's Lucy Popescu highly praised the translation by Humes and wrote that "Zijian's beautifully realised novel offers a detailed portrait of a way of life hard to imagine today.

[...] The natural beauty that surrounds the Evenki people is celebrated in lyrical prose".

"[3] Kate Saunders of The Times called it "capacious [...] both the private story of one family and a history of China [...] Zijian has an extraordinary gift for storytelling".

[1] Freya McClements argued that "Zijian’s language is infused with natural images of her native China – a bitter couple is 'a pair of weathered cliffs facing each other' – and these envelop the reader in the shrinking world of the Evenkis".