Madeleine Thien

SHORTLISTED FOR THE BAILEYS WOMEN'S PRIZE FOR FICTION 2017 SHORTLISTED FOR THE MAN BOOKER PRIZE 2016 WINNER OF THE SCOTIABANK GILLER PRIZE 2016 SHORTLISTED FOR THE PARAGRAPHE HUGH MACLENNAN PRIZE FOR FICTION 2016. In Canada in 1991, ten-year-old Marie and her mother invite a guest into their home: a young woman who has fled China in the aftermath of the Tiananmen Square protests. Her name is Ai-Ming. As her relationship with Marie deepens, Ai-Ming tells the story of her family in revolutionary China, from the crowded teahouses in the first days of Chairman Mao's ascent to the Shanghai Conservatory in the 1960s and the events leading to the Beijing demonstrations of 1989. It is a history of revolutionary idealism, music, and silence, in which three musicians, the shy and brilliant composer Sparrow, the violin prodigy Zhuli, and the enigmatic pianist Kai struggle during China's relentless Cultural Revolution to remain loyal to one another and to the music they have devoted their lives to. Forced to re-imagine their artistic and private selves, their fates reverberate through the years, with deep and lasting consequences for Ai-Ming - and for Marie. Written with exquisite intimacy, wit and moral complexity, Do Not Say We Have Nothing magnificently brings to life one of the most significant political regimes of the 20th century and its traumatic legacy, which still resonates for a new generation. It is a gripping evocation of the persuasive power of revolution and its effects on personal and national identity, and an unforgettable meditation on China today.

Do Not Say We Have Nothing

grand, sprawling, epic in scope, but thien remains fiercely loyal to the precious minutiae of her characters’ lives. gorgeous, elegant prose & devastating to read. oh my god. how can it be that everything in history is the same? I dont believe death has no revenge. long live all student movements

lae🌀

An extraordinary novel set in China before, during and after the Tiananmen Square protests of 1989--the breakout book we've been waiting for from a bestselling, Amazon.ca First Novel Award winner. Madeleine Thien's new novel is breathtaking in scope and ambition even as it is hauntingly intimate. With the ease and skill of a master storyteller, 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 in the mid-twentieth century; and the children of the survivors, who became the students protesting in Tiananmen Square in 1989, in one of the most important political moments of the past century. With exquisite writing sharpened by a surprising vein of wit and sly humour, Thien has crafted unforgettable characters who are by turns flinty and headstrong, dreamy and tender, foolish and wise. At the centre of this epic tale, as capacious and mysterious as life itself, are enigmatic Sparrow, a genius composer who wishes desperately to create music yet can find truth only in silence; his mother and aunt, Big Mother Knife and Swirl, survivors with captivating singing voices and an unbreakable bond; Sparrow's ethereal cousin Zhuli, daughter of Swirl and storyteller Wen the Dreamer, who as a child witnesses the denunciation of her parents and as a young woman becomes the target of denunciations herself; and headstrong, talented Kai, best friend of Sparrow and Zhuli, and a determinedly successful musician who is a virtuoso at masking his true self until the day he can hide no longer. Here, too, is Kai's daughter, the ever-questioning mathematician Marie, who pieces together the tale of her fractured family in present-day Vancouver, seeking a fragile meaning in the layers of their collective story. With maturity and sophistication, humour and beauty, a huge heart and impressive understanding, Thien has crafted a novel that is at once beautifully intimate and grandly political, rooted in the details of daily life inside China, yet transcendent in its universality.

Ryan Mateyk

Katie Chua

beautifully written book (i loved the use of rhetorical questions throughout) and a grand sweeping narrative that delves into modern chinese history from cultural revolution until 1989 tiananmen square ... also integrated classical music, mathematics, poetry, language, and family into a wonderfully weaved story

jiaqi kang

i haven't had a favorite book in years, because i haven't been reading as much as i used to, but oh my.... oh my !!!!!!!!! this is definitely my favorite book now

edit: reread this in aug 2019. 30 years after 6-4. oh my heart

Nadine 

This was an incredible book for me. Just for starters the writing is very lyrical, without being forced, some passages just demanded double reading for their beauty. Then there is the story - 3 talented musicians and the train smash that was the cultural revolution. World history lurches from one train smash to another and tosses the debris of peoples lives in its wake. People who stay and people who leave. People who adjust their own lives and expectations to changing circumstances and try to make the most of a terrible situation. And there is so much waste of potential. And many of these stories do not get told. And I fear mainly, people who surround these people in their new circumstances are just not interested in what they were on the cusp of becoming before being wretched into another existence. It's happening now. 
And it's the time of year when the count-down to the 4th of June incident is starting. And apparently many both inside China and out don't know much about it.
Read this book if you love music, love literature and love history and want to expand your empathy.

An epic and resonant novel about the far-reaching effects of China's revolutionary history, told through the stories of two interlinked musical families, from the 1940s to the present day In Canada in 1990, ten-year-old Marie and her mother invite a guest into their home: a young woman who has fled China in the aftermath of the Tiananmen Square protests. Her name is Ai-Ming. As her relationship with Marie deepens, Ai-Ming tells the story of her family in revolutionary China, from the crowded teahouses in the first days of Chairman Mao's ascent to the Shanghai Conservatory in the 1960s and the events leading to the Beijing demonstrations of 1989. It is a history of revolutionary idealism, music, and silence, in which three musicians, the shy and brilliant composer Sparrow, the violin prodigy Zhuli, and the enigmatic pianist Kai struggle during China's relentless Cultural Revolution to remain loyal to one another and to the music they have devoted their lives to. Forced to re-imagine their artistic and private selves, their fates reverberate through the years, with deep and lasting consequences for Ai-Ming - and for Marie. Written with exquisite intimacy, wit and moral complexity, Do Not Say We Have Nothing magnificently brings to life one of the most significant political regimes of the 20th century and its traumatic legacy, which still resonates for a new generation. It is a gripping evocation of the persuasive power of revolution and its effects on personal and national identity, and an unforgettable meditation on China today.

Jade Flynn

This swan song to China is elegant and delicate in detail but its scope is titanic. Mathematics, family history and music are exquisitely woven together in a elegiac, mellifluous and perspicacious poetic story. Her economy of language is magnificent and exceptionally assertive, because of this, the novel rewards and requires attentive reading. A serene and clamorous execution of an intergenerational family narrative. The characters I am sure, will linger with me long after the last page, just like the characters in the Book of Records lingered with Ai-Ming and Marie. The only downfall was that it came to an end. I would have gladly followed more generations for many more pages. A magnum opus.

Do Not Say We Have Nothing

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