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Once Upon A Time in the East
A Story of Growing up
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Check link for latest rating. ( 1,950 ratings, 244 reviews)
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Format: Paperback / softback
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Xiaolu Guo meets her parents for the first time when she is seven. They are strangers to her. When she is born her parents hand her over to a childless peasant couple in the mountains. Aged two, and suffering from malnutrition on a diet of yam leaves, they leave Xiaolu with her illiterate grandparents in a fishing village on the East China Sea.
A memoir of growing up in modern China from the Orange-shortlisted and Granta Best Young British Novelist.
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Description
A memoir of growing up in modern China from the Orange-shortlisted and Granta Best Young British Novelist.
Winner of the National Book Critics Circle Award
Shortlisted for the Costa Biography Award
Shortlisted for the Jhalak Prize
Shortlisted for the Rathbones Folio Prize 2018
A Sunday Times Book of the Year
Xiaolu Guo meets her parents for the first time when she is almost seven. They are strangers to her.
When she is born in 1973, her parents hand her over to a childless peasant couple in the mountains. Aged two, and suffering from malnutrition on a diet of yam leaves, they leave Xiaolu with her illiterate grandparents in a fishing village on the East China Sea.
Once Upon a Time in the East takes Xiaolu from a run-down shack to film school in a rapidly changing Beijing, navigating the everyday peculiarity of modern Chinaβcensorship, underground art, Western boyfriends. In 2002 she leaves Beijing on a scholarship to study in Britain. Now, after a decade in Europe, her tale of East to West resonates with the insight that can only come from someone who is both an outsider and at home.
'This generation's Wild Swans' Daily Telegraph
Book Hero Magic summarised reviews for this book. While it's new and still learning, it may not be perfect - your feedback is welcome! HOW HAS THIS BEEN REVIEWED?
Once Upon A Time in the East by Xiaolu Guo is described as a stunning and riveting memoir that captivates readers with its emotional depth and raw honesty. Reviewers have highlighted Guo's rebellious and optimistic nature, as well as her ability to compellingly address themes of gender, poverty, and state control. The book offers a probing exploration of her ambivalent relationship with her homeland, with a particular emphasis on the stark and brutal depiction of her parents.
Book Details
INFORMATION
ISBN: 9781784702946
Publisher: Vintage Publishing
Format: Paperback / softback
Date Published: 01 February 2018
Country: United Kingdom
Imprint: Vintage
Audience: General / adult
DIMENSIONS
Spine width: 20.0mm
Width: 129.0mm
Height: 198.0mm
Weight: 268g
Pages: 336
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About the Author
Xiaolu Guo was born in China. She published six books before moving to Britain in 2002. Her books include- Village of Stone, shortlisted for the Independent Foreign Fiction Prize; A Concise Chinese-English Dictionary for Lovers, shortlisted for the Orange Prize; and I Am China. Her recent memoir, Once Upon a Time in the East, won the National Book Critics Circle Award, was shortlisted for the Costa Biography Award and the Rathbones Folio Prize 2018. It was a Sunday Times Book of the Year. Her most recent novel A Lover's Discourse was shortlisted for the Goldsmiths Prize 2020. She is a fellow of the Royal Society of Literature and a visiting professor at the Free University in Berlin.
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