Tiananmen Square cover art

Tiananmen Square

Preview
Free with 30-day trial
Prime logo New to Audible Prime Member exclusive:
2 credits with free trial
1 credit a month to use on any title to download and keep
Listen to anything from the Plus Catalogue—thousands of Audible Originals, podcasts and audiobooks
Download titles to your library and listen offline
₹199 per month after 30-day trial. Cancel anytime.

Tiananmen Square

Written by: Lai Wen
Narrated by: Jocelyn Tam
Free with 30-day trial

₹199 per month after 30-day trial. Cancel anytime.

Buy Now for ₹500.00

Buy Now for ₹500.00

About this listen

'An extraordinary book. Truly important' - William Boyd

A stunning, deeply moving novel about growing up in Beijing in the 1970s and 80s and taking part in Tiananmen Square protests

It is Beijing in the 1970s, and Lai lives with her parents, grandmother and younger brother in a small flat in a working-class area. Her grandmother is a formidable figure - no-nonsense and uncompromising, but loving towards her granddaughter - while her ageing beauty of a mother snipes at her father, a sunken figure who has taken refuge in his work.

As she grows up, Lai comes to discern the realities of the country she lives is: an early encounter with the police haunts her for years; her father makes her see that his quietness is a reaction to experiences he has lived through; and an old bookseller subtly introduces her to ideas and novels that open her mind to different perspectives. But she also goes through what anyone goes through when young - the ebbs and flows of friendships; troubles and rewards at home and at school; and the first steps and missteps in love.

A gifted student, she is eventually given a scholarship to study at the prestigious Peking University; while there she meets new friends, and starts to get involved in the student protests that have been gathering speed. It is the late 1980s, and change is in the air...

A truly remarkable novel about coming to see the world as it is, Tiananmen Square is the story of one girl's life growing up in the China of the 1970s and 80s, as well as the story of the events in 1989 that give the novel its name: the hope and idealism of a generation of young students, their heroism and courage, and the price that some of them paid.©2024 Lai Wen (P)2024 Swift Press Audio
Biographical Fiction Coming of Age Genre Fiction Literary Fiction
No reviews yet