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Sarah Broadhurst's view...
Longlisted for the Baileys Women's Prize for Fiction 2015.
A tale of love and politics, of poetry and repression. In 1999 two Chinese students hid as a café is stormed by the authorities, so begins their love. In 2013 a pile of manuscripts, bits of paper, documents, diaries and letters are being translated by a Scottish girl as a publisher believes there may be a big story hidden amongst them. When we discover the identity of one of the authors we understand why this is expected. The novel is told partly through the translation of the documents and partly in first-person accounts of the three main protagonists. They are short chapters which is very effective. This is a clever book with many layers saying much but focusing on repression and manipulation. A very fine work.
Synopsis
I am China by Xiaolu Guo
Longlisted for the Baileys Women's Prize for Fiction 2015.
In a flat above a noisy north London market, translator Iona Kirkpatrick starts work on a Chinese letter: Dearest Mu, The sun is piercing, old bastard sky. I am feeling empty and bare. Nothing is in my soul, apart from the image of you. I am writing to you from a place I cannot tell you about yet. In a detention centre in Dover exiled Chinese musician Jian is awaiting an unknown fate. In Beijing his girlfriend Mu sends desperate letters to London to track him down, her last memory of them together a roaring rock concert and Jian the king on stage. Until the state police stormed in. As Iona unravels the story of these Chinese lovers from their first flirtations at Beijing University to Jian's march in the Jasmine Revolution, Jian and Mu seem to be travelling further and further away from each other while Iona feels more and more alive. Intoxicated by their romance, Iona sets out to bring them back together, but time seems to be running out.
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Reviews
'Heart-wrenching... An extraordinary and important book' -- Charlie Cooper Independent
'Beautifully done' -- Viv Groskop Red
'I Am China is a moving tale of life and fate, love and loss, that will stay with the reader long after the last page' New Internationalist
'Piercingly urgent and revelatory i Dark, witty fiction' -- David Evans Financial Times
About the Author
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Book Info
Publication date
30th November 1999Author
Xiaolu GuoMore books by Xiaolu Guo
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Author's Website
www.guoxiaolu.com/
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Publisher
Format
Hardback
Categories
Literary FictionAll Shortlists and WinnerseBook Favourites
ISBN
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