The Immortal Woman
A Novel
Will be published approx. on 17. April 2025
Book
Paperback/Softback
384 pages
978-1-4870-1317-2 (ISBN)
Description
Longlisted, 2025 Toronto Book Awards
Finalist, Foreword INDIES 2025 Book of the Year
A CBC Best Book of 2025
A sweeping generational story of heartbreak, resilience, and yearning, revealing an insider's view of the fractured lives of Chinese immigrants and those they leave behind.
Lemei, once a student Red Guard leader in 1960s Shanghai and a journalist at a state newspaper, was involved in a brutal act of violence during the Tiananmen Square protests and lost all hope for her country. Her daughter, Lin, is a student at an American university on a mission to become a true Westerner. She tirelessly erases her birth identity, abandons her Chinese suitor, and pursues a white lover, all the while haunted by the scars of her upbringing. Following China's meteoric rise, Lemei is slowly dragged into a nationalistic perspective that stuns Lin. Their final confrontation results in tragic consequences, but ultimately, offers hope for a better future. By turns wry and lyrical, The Immortal Woman reminds us to hold tight to our humanity at any cost.
Finalist, Foreword INDIES 2025 Book of the Year
A CBC Best Book of 2025
A sweeping generational story of heartbreak, resilience, and yearning, revealing an insider's view of the fractured lives of Chinese immigrants and those they leave behind.
Lemei, once a student Red Guard leader in 1960s Shanghai and a journalist at a state newspaper, was involved in a brutal act of violence during the Tiananmen Square protests and lost all hope for her country. Her daughter, Lin, is a student at an American university on a mission to become a true Westerner. She tirelessly erases her birth identity, abandons her Chinese suitor, and pursues a white lover, all the while haunted by the scars of her upbringing. Following China's meteoric rise, Lemei is slowly dragged into a nationalistic perspective that stuns Lin. Their final confrontation results in tragic consequences, but ultimately, offers hope for a better future. By turns wry and lyrical, The Immortal Woman reminds us to hold tight to our humanity at any cost.
Reviews / Votes
"Chang's writing is powered by raw emotion ... [The Immortal Woman is] a cathartic account of a family buffeted by the winds of modern Chinese history." - Publishers Weekly "An inviting, intimate look at ordinary people living through times of momentous change." - Kirkus "This insightful and satisfying novel offers nuanced looks into the lives of contemporary Chinese families." - Booklist "The Immortal Woman ... skilfully shows how the immigrant's dream of leaving their former life behind proves unattainable." - Winnipeg Free Press "Defying limits with triumph and aplomb ... Chang's lyrical, spinning and dizzying prose creates a vivid sense of the ever-shifting ground beneath her characters' feet." - 49th Shelf "An urgent debut that deserves to be read and reread." - The Ampersand Review "Dreamy, quietly stunning prose. [Su Chang] has an innate ability to weave together sharp political commentary with deeply human emotions ... [The Immortal Woman is a] masterpiece." - The /t?mz/ Review "The Immortal Woman is a promising debut with some unforgettable passages. " - Washington Independent Review of Books "Chang's writing is extremely lyrical ... Compelling." - The Miramichi Reader "Ambitious and richly rendered." -Ottawa Review of Books "A great read, with delicate and engaging prose, well-researched, and mesmerizing in its depictions of the tragic and difficult choices the characters make throughout." -The Seaboard Review "Su Chang paints a complex picture of intergenerational trauma and the meaning of home." - Quebec Library Association "Anyone who wants to understand the depth of the ruptures that characterise today's China - and its diaspora - should read this book." - Literatur. ReviewMore details
Language
English
Place of publication
Concord
Canada
Product notice
Paperback (trade)
Illustrations
Illustrations
Dimensions
Height: 206 mm
Width: 137 mm
Thickness: 30 mm
Weight
386 gr
ISBN-13
978-1-4870-1317-2 (9781487013172)
Copyright in bibliographic data and cover images is held by Nielsen Book Services Limited or by the publishers or by their respective licensors: all rights reserved.
Schweitzer Classification
Person
SU CHANG is a Chinese Canadian writer. Born and raised in Shanghai, she is the daughter of a former (reluctant) Red Guard leader. Her fiction has been recognized in Prairie Fire's Short Fiction Contest, the Canadian Authors Association (Toronto) National Writing Contest, the ILS/Fence Fiction Contest, and the Masters Review's Novel Excerpt Contest, among others.