For the part 1 and

Brothers is the longest novel written by the Chinese novelist Yu Hua, in total of 76 chapters, separately published in 2005 for the part 1 and in 2006 for part 2 by Shanghai Literature and Art Publishing House. This was Yu Hua's first novel after a decade of dormancy from writing and publishing works. It has over 180 thousand characters in Chinese, more than the 100 thousand characters that were originally planned for the book. It intertwines tragedy and comedy, and Yu Hua himself admits that the novel is personally his favorite literary work. Brothers was a new realm of literature for Yu Hua, with the novel often being described as extremely crude and expletive. Brothers has experienced great success with nearly 1 million copies sold in China. By 2019, Yu Hua's works had been published in 38 countries and translated into 35 different languages. This success may be contributed to his success publicity tour to gain attraction towards the novel after his hiatus from writing. While reception among Chinese critics was generally negative, the novel was shortlisted for the Man Asian Literary Prize and awarded France's Prix Courrier International in 2008. It was translated into English by Eileen Cheng-yin Chow and Carlos Rojas in 2009, a couple from the Middle Eastern department at Duke University.