Empire of glass
Subtitle: a novel
By: Kaitlin Solimine
Publisher: Ig Publishing
Published: 2017
Language: eng
Number of pages: 299
ISBN-13: 9781632460554
Copyright date: 2017
Subjects: Chinese Americans; Fiction; Translators; History
Description: In the mid-1990s, an American teenager, named Lao K in Chinese, stands on Coal Hill, a park in Beijing, a loop of rope in her hand. Will she assist her Chinese homestay mother, Li-Ming, who is dying of cancer, in ending her life, or will she choose another path? Twenty years later, Lao K receives a book written by Li-Ming called "Empire of Glass," a narrative that chronicles the lives of Li-Ming and her husband, Wang, in pre and post-revolutionary China over the last half of the twentieth century. Lao K begins translating the story, which becomes the novel we are reading. But, as translator, how can Lao K separate fact from fiction, and what will her role be in the book's final chapter?  A grand, experimental epic--Lao K's story is told in footnotes that run throughout the book--that chronicles the seismic changes in China over the last half century through the lens of one family's experiences, Empire of Glass is an investigation into the workings of human memory and the veracity of oral history that pushes the boundaries of language and form in stunning and unforgettable ways.