The Wind Beyond the Walls by John

A quiet literary novel about an ordinary life shaped first by history and later by choice. Zhang Yuansheng grows up in rural Shandong and the Shengli Oilfield, builds a family, emigrates to Canada, and in middle age begins a second departure through work, software, writing, and collaboration with AI. Rooted in Chinese experience and told with restraint, the novel follows the small decisions through which a life changes direction.