Do Not Say We Have Nothing

Fabulous book. Took me some time to get into it, because of the different character names. I made myself a family diagram so that I could keep track of the family members. But having said that, Madeleine Thien is a wonderful writer. I first discovered her when I read her short story collection, Simple Recipes years back, before she won all her awards, and was entranced. Her metaphors are not just literary devices to embellish a story. They are poetic in themselves and I found that I would stop and savour them before continuing.

As my husband and I had visited China and toured Tienanmen Square the year after the student revolution, and had read many non-fiction articles about the event and horror of it, I was prepared. But what I wasn't prepared for was the historical narrative leading up to the tragedy. Very well told with engaging characters.