Sa Shan

When hostilities break out between her fellow citizens in Manchuria and their Japanese occupiers, a sixteen-year-old girl becomes disdainful of the adult world and dominates local go competitions until she is challenged by a disguised Japanese soldier.

The Girl Who Played Go

As the Japanese military invades 1930s Manchuria, a young girl approaches her own sexual coming of age. Drawn into a complex triangle with two boys, she distracts herself from the onslaught of adulthood by playing the game of go with strangers in a public square--and yet the force of desire, like the occupation, proves inevitable. Unbeknownst to the girl who plays go, her most worthy and frequent opponent is a Japanese soldier in disguise. Captivated by her beauty as much as by her bold, unpredictable approach to the strategy game, the soldier finds his loyalties challenged. Is there room on the path to war for that most revolutionary of acts: falling in love? From the Trade Paperback edition.

The Girl who Played Go

Anyaconda

I didn't get on with the writing. It was way too emotionally detached from the characters for my liking. If you want to read a book about Nanking, there are better ones out there. The ending was poignant but that's about it.

dija

Ughhhhhhhhhhh this bleeegh i mean this book. Ugh

Francesca G

This book was basically the written form of a dream. The story drew me in from the premise and, while it has a very fast-paced narration, once I was done reading it (and discovered how it ended), it felt like everything was happening too quickly, so much so that it didn't give itself enough time to develop the relationships between the characters. That being said, I did enjoy it a lot and thought it was good. I loved the alternate POVs between the girl and the boy and how their backstories are not introduced all at once. I read a review that compared the pacing of every chapter to a move in the game of Go, and I would have not put it in better words myself to explain how reading this book feels.

The Girl Who Played Go

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