Reviews

Really lovely, absorbing story about who/where we come from; what it is to be or have a caregiver or a mother. Some reviewers mentioned the lack of quotation marks, but I didn't even notice them—obviously not a dealbreaker for me. Separately, I wonder at how accurate the physics is; I assume it's pretty accurate.

theeuphoriczat's review against another edition

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3.0

I have never heard of this book until I found it while browsing a bookstore. The synopsis sounded really good but I was not excepting what I got. (To avoid spoilers, i think the synopsis of this one is enough)

On the night of the Tiananmen Square massacre (the 1989 Tiananmen Square protest - a student-led demonstration - which was aimed at ending corruption within the CCP, as well as hopes for democratic reforms and freedom of speech, press etc. - which lead to enforcement of martial law declared by Li Peng ; while it is called a massacre to the rest of the world, it is conveniently called the 'June Forth Incident' in China) a woman gives birth alone in a Beijing hospital. Meng Jin was able to show and reflect on the horrors of the day by highlighting time, smell, and the antiseptics used to clean. It really transports you to the hallway of the hospital.

With the birth of her daughter Su Lan is determined to make herself; her love for physics began to make her neglect and be indifference to her daughter. This is exacerbated by the absence of understanding from her husband who had joined the protest. Year later when she dies in the US, her daughter Liya who has always lived in the silence trail of her mother decides to take her mother's ashes by to China hoping to learn more about her mother who had tried everything to scrub herself of her past and to find her father.

This is a tale of grief, loss of identity, reclamation, ambition, fear, sense of displacement and a search for relationships.