Nine Continents

September 15, 2017

In this forthright memoir, acclaimed writer and filmmaker Guo (honorary associate professor, Univ. of Nottingham; I Am China) recounts the difficult, at times traumatic, circumstances she endured while growing up in late 20th-century China. Guo's parents left her as an infant with her illiterate and impoverished grandparents in a small fishing village on the East China Sea. Shockingly, the author witnessed her grandfather's suicide as a young child. Additionally, her grandmother's care was inconsistent, and owing to their limited means, hunger was Guo's constant companion. Although often overcome with hopelessness, the author ultimately developed unwavering determination to move beyond her desolate situation. After realizing her creative talent, Guo became steadfast in her desire to reach her potential. Eventually reunited with her parents, she persevered against tremendous odds to attend university in Beijing. Working within and against the complex political constraints of the Communist regime, she honed her literary skills with the goal of immigrating to the West, where her freedoms would be greater. VERDICT This compelling story set against the incredible growth and cultural changes of one of the world's most powerful countries will engage those fascinated by the resolve of the human spirit to succeed.--Mary Jennings, Camano Island Lib., WA

Copyright 2017 Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.

August 15, 2017
A gripping memoir about growing up in--and leaving--China, from one of Britain's most acclaimed young novelists.Guo (I Am China, 2014, etc.) spent most of her childhood unwanted: first, by parents who gave her away to a peasant couple, and later, by those adopted parents, who returned her as a sickly 2-year-old child to ailing, illiterate grandparents in a struggling fishing village. Poor, emaciated, and uneducated, Guo experienced a harsh childhood scraping by on rice porridge and the promise a Taoist monk made to her and her grandmother: "The girl is a peasant warrior....She will cross the sea and travel the Nine Continents." When the author's parents came to reclaim her following her grandfather's suicide, her long and often heartbreaking journey to making that prediction come true began. In the communist compound of Wenling, she lived as the "unwanted one," beaten by her mother, ignored by her older brother, and abused by her community. Her love of art kept her going until she landed a coveted spot at the prestigious Beijing Film Academy. However, even in a city overflowing with culture and rebellion, oppression and censorship reigned supreme, and it wasn't until a scholarship from England granted Guo the opportunity to leave China that she was able to find artistic and personal freedom. After a decade abroad, the birth of her daughter forced her to return home to confront her family and the tragedies of her past. In evocative, captivating prose that reads like fiction, Guo brings to life her lifelong struggles against the chains of poverty, gender, and censorship. A talented wordsmith, she unabashedly lays bare her personal history with raw emotion and unflinching honesty, and she is unafraid to express her anger, disappointment, or joy at every turn. A rich and insightful coming-of-age story of not only a woman, but an artist and the country in which she was born.

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September 1, 2017
The future a Taoist monk predicted for Guo was unimaginable. He told the young girl that she would travel the worldfor a peasant growing up in a poor fishing village in 1970s China, that seemed impossible. But Guo's life would undergo several monumental shifts. First, she was taken from the village where she had been raised by her grandparents to live with her parents, who had married despite being class enemies after the revolution, in a compound steeped in Maoist ideals. Guo went on to become one of a handful of students accepted to study film in Beijing. She recounts with aching clarity how her understanding of the world and her place in it slowly developed. Guo vigorously confronts the most harrowing episodes of life in China, from the almost daily beatings her grandmother endured to her own torment by a young man in her father's office. Her sober, at times painful, recollections offer a window into a repressive society and insight into her continuing struggle to break free of the bonds of the past.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2017, American Library Association.)