Get Hooked on FORBIDDEN CITY by Vanessa Hua
Channel: San Francisco Public Library
Date: 2022-08-03

When the Communist Party recruits girls for a mysterious duty in the capital, Mei seizes the opportunity to escape her impoverished village. It is only when she arrives at Chairman Mao Zedong’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 makes a beeline toward the Chairman, separating herself from the other girls to become the Chairman's confidante-and paramour. 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.

Find a copy of FORBIDDEN CITY at the San Francisco Public Library (https://sfpl.bibliocommons.com/v2/record/S93C5140129) or buy a copy from your local book seller: https://bookshop.org/books/forbidden-city-9780399178818/9780399178818

Vanessa Hua is an award-winning, best-selling author and columnist for the San Francisco Chronicle. Her novel, A River of Stars, was named to the Washington Post and NPR’s Best Books of 2018 lists, and was SFPL’s “On the Same Page” Book Club selection for May 2021. Her short story collection, Deceit and Other Possibilities,  a New York Times Editors' Choice, received an Asian/Pacific American Award in Literature and was a finalist for a California Book Award, and a New American Voices Award.

Tuesday, August 9 6 p.m. – Vanessa Hua, Kirstin Chen and Ingrid Rojas Contreras talk about their latest books. A not-to-miss conversation between these three amazing women writers. https://youtu.be/GgHKh4RG6wM