Do Not Say We Have Nothing: A Novel [B2064]

2017 PB in nice clean condition. Winner of the Scotiabank Giller Prize and the Governor General's Literary Award. Finalist for the Booker Prize and the Baileys Women's Prize for Fiction. "A powerfully expansive novel...Thien writes with the mastery of a conductor." -New York Times Book Review.

"In a single year, my father left us twice. The first time, to end his marriage, and the second, when he took his own life. I was ten years old." Master storyteller Madeleine Thien takes us inside an extended family in China, showing us the lives of two successive generations-those who lived through Mao's Cultural Revolution and their children, who became the students protesting in Tiananmen Square. At the center of this epic story are two young women, Marie and Ai-Ming. Through their relationship Marie strives to piece together the tale of her fractured family in present-day Vancouver B.C., seeking answers in the fragile layers of their collective story. Her quest will unveil how Kai, her enigmatic father, a talented pianist, and Ai-Ming's father, the shy and brilliant composer, Sparrow, along with the violin prodigy Zhuli were forced to reimagine their artistic and private selves during China's political campaigns and how their fates reverberate through the years with lasting consequences. With maturity and sophistication, humor and beauty, Thien has crafted a novel that is at once intimate and grandly political, rooted in the details of life inside China yet transcendent in its universality.

From recent-ish Amazon/GoodReads reviews: A few reviewers found it too long; Most others LOVED it: "A marvelous achievement, carefully balanced, sensitive. The Cultural Revolution and then Tiananmen Square Protests from the inside. Stories of Marie's (Ai-ming's) family under the control of Chairman Mao along with music and silences and the values of 'zero'. A reread is definitely on the cards."; "One of the best novels I've ever read. The complexity of the story is paradoxically made easier to follow by the musical themes and their interactions. The characters are so fully developed I feel as though they've been in my study talking with or to me. Bracing and brilliant."; "Just wow. Highly recommend this book, AND listening to a playlist of the songs mentioned. This is definitely a book I read at the right time in my life; as a new Canadian immigrant, university aged, who attended music school. Absolutely beautiful, mature prose that definitely pushed me creatively. Absolutely OBSESSED with how there's so many quotes and quotable lines. History is cyclical, and the only way to avoid repeating the cycle is to learn about it. Learn and always respect those whose death brought me the freedom I have today. Hug your loved ones a little tighter today, and then do something out of your comfort zone, out of the kindness of your heart. Thank you Madeleine."