Wang Wen-hsing caused a sensation in Taiwan in 1972 with publication of Family Catastrophe, his first full-length novel. Many critics were outraged, called it socially irresponsible, morally corrupt, and stylistically irrational, but the novel weathered its controversial reception to become what is now widely regarded as a masterpiece in modern Chinese fiction and the benchmark of Taiwan’s Modernist movement.

Often described as Joycean, Family Catastrophe is significant for its stylistic and linguistic experimentation as well as for its disturbing and universal themes. It appears now in English for the first time.

Set in post-1949 Taiwan, this novel is an intimate revelation of a family's journey to catastrophe. The rather of the all-too-ordinary Fan family suddenly flees from home; his son, Fan Yeh, sets off to search for him but is repeatedly unsuccessful, returning alone to the anxiously waiting mother. As it tracks Fan Yeh's fruitless search, Wang Wen-hsing's innovative narrative unfolds the history of this family, depicting relationships both tender and brutal and divulging secrets of poverty and abuse, love and hate.

王文兴，福建省福州市人。1939年生，后去台。他入学较晚，一入学就是三年级。他从高中三年级开始写小说，他的第一篇小说，曾在亚洲杂志举办的学生组小说比赛中得到第三名。台北师大附中毕业后，考取台湾大学外文系。1960年和同班同学白先勇、欧阳子、陈若曦等人创办《现代文学》杂志。早期的《现代文学》编辑事务多由他负责。台湾大学毕业后，他去美国依阿华大学的作家工作室从事研究，并获硕士学位。返回台湾后，在台湾大学外文系任教授，并担任中文系的课程。他专心教书和写作，极少参加社会上的活动。但1978年台湾乡土文学大论战时，他却多次表态，对台湾的乡土文学持否定态度。他的作品不多，但大都以儿童或青少年为主人公或为背景，以儿童的悲伤和恐惧刻画人生。他的小说中表现得最沉着有力的主题是：命运。著有短篇小说集《龙天楼》、《玩具手枪》，长篇小说《家变》、《背海的人》。