07 Nov / The Girl Who Played Go by Shan Sa, translated by Adriana Hunter [in AsianWeek]
In the midst of the growing Japanese occupation of China via Manchuria in the 1930s, an unlikely relationship develops between a teenage girl and a Japanese soldier disguised as a Chinese peasant, while playing endless games of go — in near silence.
Told through alternating voices, Go traces the experiences of these disparate characters, who come to know one another deeply through the strategies they use in their game, following their lives to a sudden, shattering conclusion. A chilling, haunting work, Sa is poised to follow in the steps of Dai Sijie, another Chinese ex-patriot living and writing in French, who wrote the bestselling Balzac and the Little Chinese Seamstress.
Review: “New and Notable Books,” AsianWeek, November 7, 2003
Readers: Adult
Published: 2003 (United States)