Bøger af Vanessa Hua

NATIONAL BESTSELLER • A teenage girl living in 1960s China becomes Mao Zedong’s protégée and lover—and a heroine of the Cultural Revolution—in this “masterful new novel” (The Washington Post) “A new classic about China’s Cultural Revolution . . . Think Succession, but add death and mayhem to the palace intrigue. . . . Ambitious and impressive.”—San Francisco ChronicleONE OF THE BEST BOOKS OF THE YEAR: The Washington Post, PopSugar • Longlisted for the Joyce Carol Oates PrizeOn the eve of China’s Cultural Revolution and her sixteenth birthday, Mei dreams of becoming a model revolutionary. When the Communist Party recruits girls for a mysterious duty in the capital, she seizes the opportunity to escape her impoverished village. It is only when Mei arrives at the Chairman’s opulent residence—a forbidden city unto itself—that she learns that the girls’ job is to dance with the Party elites. Ambitious and whip-smart, Mei beelines toward the Chairman. Mei gradually separates herself from the other recruits to become the Chairman’s confidante—and paramour. While he fends off political rivals, Mei faces down schemers from the dance troupe who will stop at nothing to take her place and the Chairman’s imperious wife, who has secret plans of her own. When the Chairman finally gives Mei a political mission, she seizes it with fervor, but the brutality of this latest stage of the revolution makes her begin to doubt all the certainties she has held so dear. Forbidden City is an epic yet intimate portrayal of one of the world’s most powerful and least understood leaders during this extraordinarily turbulent period in modern Chinese history. Mei’s harrowing journey toward truth and disillusionment raises questions about power, manipulation, and belief, as seen through the eyes of a passionate teenage girl.

NATIONAL BESTSELLER *;In a powerful debut about modern-day motherhood, immigration, and identity, a pregnant Chinese woman stakes a claim to the American dream in California.';Utterly absorbing.'Celeste Ng *; ';A marvel of a first novel.'O: The Oprah Magazine*; ';Themost eye-opening literary adventure of the year.'Entertainment WeeklyNAMED ONE OF THE BEST BOOKS OF THE YEAR BYThe Washington Post*;NPR *;Real SimpleHoled up with other mothers-to-be in a secret maternity home in Los Angeles, Scarlett Chen is far from her native China, where she worked in a factory and fell in love with the married owner, Boss Yeung. Now she's carrying his baby. To ensure that his childhis first sonhas every advantage, Boss Yeung has shipped Scarlett off to give birth on American soil. As Scarlett awaits the baby's arrival, she spars with her imperious housemates. The only one who fits in even less is Daisy, a spirited, pregnant teenager who is being kept apart from her American boyfriend.Then a new sonogram of Scarlett's baby reveals the unexpected. Panicked, she goes on the run by hijacking a vanonly to discover that she has a stowaway: Daisy, who intends to track down the father of her child. The two flee to San Francisco's bustling Chinatown, where Scarlett will join countless immigrants desperately trying to seize their piece of the American dream. What Scarlett doesn't know is that her baby's father is not far behind her.A River of Starsis a vivid examination of home and belonging and a moving portrayal of a woman determined to build her own future.Praise forA River of Stars';Vanessa Hua's story spins with wild fervor, with charming protagonists fiercely motivated by maternal and survival instincts.'USA Today';A River of Starsis the best of all worlds: part buddy cop adventure, part coming-of-age story and part ode to female friendship.'NPR';Hua's epicA River of Starsfollows a pair of pregnant Chinese immigrant womentwo of the more vibrant characters I've come across in a whileon the lam from Los Angeles to San Francisco's Chinatown.'R. O. Kwon, author ofThe Incendiaries, inEsquire';Adelightfulnovel of motherhood and Chinese immigration. . . Without wading into policy debates, Ms Hua dramatises the stories and contributions of immigrants who believe in grand ideals and strive to live up to them.'The Economist