HUNDRED FLOWERS
Gail Tsukiyama's A Hundred Flowers is powerful novel about an ordinary family facing extraordinary times at the start of the Chinese Cultural Revolution
China, 1957. Chairman Mao has declared a new openness in society: "Let a hundred flowers bloom; let a hundred schools of thought contend." Many intellectuals fear it is only a trick, and Kai Ying's husband, Sheng, a teacher, has promised not to jeopardize their safety or that of their young son, Tao. But one July morning, just before his sixth birthday, Tao watches helplessly as Sheng is dragged away for writing a letter criticizing the Communist Party and sent to a labor camp for "reeducation."
A year later, still missing his father desperately, Tao climbs to the top of the hundred-year-old kapok tree in front of their home, wanting to see the mountain peaks in the distance. But Tao slips and tumbles thirty feet to the courtyard below, badly breaking his leg.
As Kai Ying struggles to hold her small family together in the face of this shattering reminder of her husband's absence, other members of the household must face their own guilty secrets and strive to find peace in a world where the old sense of order is falling. Once again, Tsukiyama brings us a powerfully moving story of ordinary people facing extraordinary circumstances with grace and courage.
Edad recomendada: Adultos.
TSUKIYAMA GAIL
Gail Tsukiyama es una novelista y docente estadounidense nacida en San Francisco, California, de ascendencia china y japonesa. Cursó estudios de licenciatura y maestría en Escritura Creativa en la Universidad Estatal de San Francisco, donde posteriormente se desempeñó como profesora del departamento de lengua y literatura. Publicó su primera novela, El jardín de los samuráis, en 1995, a la que siguieron títulos como La esposa del tejedor de seda, Las mujeres de las huellas de nieve, La calle de las cien nubes y El color del aire. Su obra explora frecuentemente temas como la memoria familiar, la identidad cultural, la historia asiática y las dinámicas intergeneracionales. A lo largo de su trayectoria profesional ha recibido distinciones como el Premio de la Commonwealth y ha participado activamente en la dirección de festivales de literatura y programas de becas creativas.
