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A review by sweddy65
Living Treasures by Yang Huang
4.0
I was very happy to have won this book in a giveaway.
Set in the midst of the student uprising of 1989, this book weaves together culture (both urban and rural), politics, and love.
Gu Bao is not a participant in the Tiananmen Square protests, but is a keen observer of what is going on around her. She is in love with Tong, a soldier, despite the fact that her heart is with the protestors. When she becomes pregnant, her parents pressure her to have an abortion. She would not be able to continue with her studies in the law as a mother. She returns to her grandparents' village for the procedure and recovery.
Bao had spent time as a child in the village, but her life had changed. She is no longer comfortable in the rural life, but slowly finds her way through the differences and back to loving and appreciating her grandparents. She becomes entangled in the politics of the one-child policy, bringing food and company to a woman hiding out in the mountains because she is pregnant and wants to keep the child, despite already having a daughter.
The story is compelling, the characters nuanced and never exactly what they seem at first.
Set in the midst of the student uprising of 1989, this book weaves together culture (both urban and rural), politics, and love.
Gu Bao is not a participant in the Tiananmen Square protests, but is a keen observer of what is going on around her. She is in love with Tong, a soldier, despite the fact that her heart is with the protestors. When she becomes pregnant, her parents pressure her to have an abortion. She would not be able to continue with her studies in the law as a mother. She returns to her grandparents' village for the procedure and recovery.
Bao had spent time as a child in the village, but her life had changed. She is no longer comfortable in the rural life, but slowly finds her way through the differences and back to loving and appreciating her grandparents. She becomes entangled in the politics of the one-child policy, bringing food and company to a woman hiding out in the mountains because she is pregnant and wants to keep the child, despite already having a daughter.
The story is compelling, the characters nuanced and never exactly what they seem at first.