The April 3rd Incident

The April 3rd Incident is a collection of short stories by Yu Hua, who wrote the stories from 1987 to 1991. The English translation, by Allan H. Barr, was published in 2018 by Pantheon. Barr teaches Chinese at Pomona College.

For the 1948 incident on Jeju Island, South Korea, see Jeju uprising.

The stories included are experimental, and Publishers Weekly characterizes the shorter ones as having "devastating wit and morbid humor". Kirkus Reviews described them as "very post-punk and confrontational". Barr stated that Borges, Faulkner, and Kafka had influenced Yu Hua's writing.

The stories allude to an incident that is never clearly defined, not even in the chapter that shares its name with the collection's title; April 3 happens to be the birthday of Yu Hua. The stories include elements of conspiracies, double-crossing, and characters revealing their true natures. Publishers Weekly compares the stories to those of Italo Calvino.

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