Author

Publication

2007 - Nan A. Talese/Doubleday, New York, New York (State)

Language

English

Word Count

70,750 words, Guess

Page Count

283 pages

Identifiers

and 4 more

Classifications

  • DDC823/.92
  • LCCPR9450.9.G86 C66 2007
  • LCCPR9450.9.G86C66 2007

Description

A Concise Chinese-English Dictionary for Lovers heralds the American debut of a remarkably gifted young writer. Twenty-three-year-old Zhuang, the daughter of shoe factory owners in rural China, has come to London to study English. She calls herself Z because English people can't pronounce her name, but she's no better at their language. Set loose to find her way through a confusion of cultural gaffes and grammatical mishaps, she winds up lodging with a Chinese family and thinks she might as well not have left home. But then she meets an English man who changes everything. From the moment he smiles at her, she enters a new world of sex, freedom, and self-discovery. But she also realizes that, in the West, "love" does not always mean the same as in China, and that you can learn all the words in the English language and still not understand your lover.Drawing on her diaries from when she first arrived in the UK, Xiaolu Guo winningly writes the story in steadily improving English grammar and vocabulary. Freshly humorous, sexy, and poignant, A Concise Chinese-English Dictionary for Lovers is an utterly original novel about language, identity, and the cultural divide.

Subjects

Genres

  • Fiction

Other Editions

  • A concise Chinese-English dictionary for loversNan A. Talese/Doubleday2007-01-01

Reader Reviews

No reviews yet for this book.

Be the first to share your thoughts!