End of East by Jen Sookfong Lee
	List Price:   $23.95 Unit Price:   $19.16 You Save:   $4.79 (20%) ISBN-10:   0312379854 ISBN-13:   9780312379858 Publisher:   St. Martin's Press; Thomas Dunne Books Category:   Young Adults Pub. Date:   April 2008 Pages:   245 Format:   Hardcover; Cloth over boards
Subjects
VANCOUVER (B.C.)_FICTION FICTION_GENERAL
Description/Notes
In the tradition of Amy Tan and Jhumpa Lahiri, a moving portrait of three generations of family living in Vancouver's Chinatown nbsp; From Knopf Canada's New Face of Fiction program--launching grounds for Yann Martel'sLife of Piand Ann-Marie MacDonald'sFall on Your Knees--comes this powerfully evocative novel. nbsp; At age eighteen, Seid Quan is the first in the Chan family to emigrate from China to Vancover in 1913. Paving the way for a wife and son, he is profoundly lonely, even as he joins the Chinatown community. nbsp; Weaving in and out of the past and the present,The End of Eastpieces together the spellbinding tale of Seid Quan's family: his wife Shew Lin, whose hope for her family are threatened by her own misguided actions; his son Pon Man, who struggles with obligation and desire; his daughter-in-law Siu Sang, who tries to be the caregiver everyone expects, even as she feels herself unraveling; and his granddaughter Sammy, who finds herself embroiled in a volatile mixture of seduction, grief, and duty. nbsp; An exquisite debut of isolation, immigration, romance, and insanity,The End of Eastsets family conflicts against the backdrop of Vancouver's Chinatown--a city within a city where dreams are shattered as quickly as they're built, and where history repeats itself through the generations. It is a bold and accomplished debut from one of Canada's brightest new literary stars. 'The truth that imbues every line of Jen Sookfong Lee'sThe End of Eastis so coruscating that we must look away. And yet she will not let us, and so we cannot.' - Jacquelyn Mitchard,New York Timesbestselling author ofThe Deep End of the Ocean nbsp; 'An emotional powerhouse of a novel...calls to mind Ishiguro's Booker Prize winnerThe Remains of the Day. This is anbsp;book that can sit on a shelf of novels by Ondaatje, Atwood, and Laurence.' -Halifax Chronicle Herald nbsp; 'Beautifully guides us through the heart of the Chan family and the Chinese immigrant experience--charting dreams, regrets, hopes, and triumphs along the way. Jen Sookfong Lee's storytelling instincts are honest, unflinching, and fearless.' - Amy McKay, author ofThe Birth House nbsp; 'A wise, challenging, and heartbreaking novel...Jen Sookfong Lee is a novelist with the eye and ear and soul of a poet.' - Gail Anderson-Dargatz, author ofA Recipe for Bees nbsp; 'Compelling and complex...richly layered...The End of Eastis fine prose.' -The Globe and Mail nbsp; 'Impressive in its accomplished prose and its ambitious three-generational scope. Lee's talent is undeniable.' -National Post ' In this powerful first novel Jen Sookfong Lee moves fluently through the life of an immigrant family, speaking what remains unspoken between the generations. Observant and humane, The End of East shows us that within a family nothing ever really ends.' ' '- Thomas Wharton, author of Salamander' ' ' From China to Vancouver, past to present, The End of East beautifully guides us through the heart of the Chan family and the Chinese immigrant experience - charting dreams, regrets, hopes and triumphs along the way. Jen Sookfong Lee' s storytelling instincts are honest, unflinching and fearless.' - Ami McKay, author of The Birth House ' I am awestruck by Jen Sookfong Lee' s ambition in this, her first novel, an ambition that is fulfilled with power and grace. Whatever assumptions I had about Vancouver' s Chinatown have been supplanted by Lee' s vision of a world where family obligation is passed on through the generations, where personal dreams are sacrificed for family goals as a matter of course. It' s a world that is different, and yet so terribly similar to my own. The End of East is a wise, challenging and heartbreaking novel. And Jen Sookfong Lee is a novelist with the eye and ear and soul of a poet.' - Gail Anderson-Dargatz, author of The Cure for Death by Lightning and A Recipe for Bees'From the Hardcover edition.' 'Impressive, both in terms of its accomplished prose and its ambitious three-generational scope. . . . Lee's talent is undeniable.' -'National Post' 'Poetic. . . . Jen Sookfong Lee is aware of the dark side of mythmaking, its distorting and even parasitic price. It's one of many things that make her a novelist to watch.' -'Calgary Herald' 'An accomplished and complex story about the intricate set of issues that surround Chinese-Canadian identity, a story that will ring true for Canadians of other backgrounds.' -'The Gazette' (Montreal) 'Richly layered . . . there is much to admire. . . . Jen Lee shows off a confident style, investing The End of East with rich imagery and well-wrought characters and deftly handling the complexities of the various storylines.' -'-The Vancouver Sun' 'In this powerful first novel Jen Sookfong Lee moves fluently through the life of an immigrant family, speaking what remains unspoken between the generations. Observant and humane, The End of East shows us that within a family nothing ever really ends.'' '-Thomas Wharton, author of Salamander' ' 'From China to Vancouver, past to present, The End of East beautifully guides us through the heart of the Chanfamily and the Chinese immigrant experience - charting dreams, regrets, hopes and triumphs along the way. Jen Sookfong Lee's storytelling instincts are honest, unflinching and fearless.' -Ami McKay, author of The Birth House 'I am awestruck by Jen Sookfong Lee's ambition in this, her first novel, an ambition that is fulfilled with power and grace. Whatever assumptions I had about Vancouver's Chinatown have been supplanted by Lee's vision of a world where family obligation is passed on through the generations, where personal dreams are sacrificed for family goals as a matter of course. It's a world that is different, and yet so terribly similar to my own. The End of East is a wise, challenging and heartbreaking novel. And Jen Sookfong Lee is a novelist with the eye and ear and soul of a poet.' -Gail Anderson-Dargatz, author of The Cure for Death by Lightning and A Recipe for Bees 'At age eighteen, Seid Quan is the first in the Chan family to emigrate from China to Vancouver in 1913. Paving the way for a wife and son, he is profoundly lonely, even as he joins the Chinatown community.' 'Weaving in and out of the past and the present, The End of East pieces together the tale of Seid Quan's family: his wife Shew Lin, whose hopes for her family are threatened by her own misguided actions; his son Pon Man, who struggles with obligation and desire; his daughter-in-law Siu Sang, who tries to be the caregiver everyone expects, even as she feels herself unraveling; and his granddaughter Sammy, who finds herself embroiled in a volatile mixture of seduction, grief, and duty.' 'An exquisite debut of isolation, immigration, romance, and insanity, The End of East sets family conflicts against the backdrop of Vancouver's Chinatown - a city within a city where dreams are shattered as quickly as they're built,and where history repeats itself through the generations.'--BOOK JACKET.