For more than seventeen years, Lin Kong, a dedicated doctor, has been passionately in love with an educated, modern woman, Manna Wu, but back in his traditional home village lives the humble, loyal wife his family chose for him years ago. Every summer, he returns to ask her for a divorce and every summer his compliant wife agrees but then backs out. This time, after eighteen years’ waiting, Lin promises it will be different. ‘Imagine if Romeo and Juliet had been made to stretch out their passion for 18 years, without consummating their love. Now imagine them in China during the crazy bureaucracy of Mao’s Cultural Revolution, unable to talk in private let alone kiss… the insights into Chinese culture and the complexities of human longing are beautiful and compelling.’ – Daily Mail (Backcover text)

Author

Ha Jin was born in 1956 in Liaoning, China, and spent six years serving in the People’s Liberaton Army. He left China in 1985 for the United States, where he earned a PhD at Brandeis University. He is the author of two books of poetry, two collections of stories, Ocean of Words and Under the Red Flag. He is currently a professor of English in Boston University.    

Ha Jin, Wikipedia (en)