Book Review
You can purchase this book at:
http://www.lulu.com/content/495655
http://www.chinachildlaw.com/song/
"It is hard to decide who is the main character in this absorbing murder mystery: the sympathetic female detective superintendent in charge of the case, or the beloved ancient poem by the Tang-dynasty 'people's poet' Bai Juyi.
I enjoyed Superintendent Zhang Xueli, with her decent old-style communist parents and her enviable good luck in happening upon elderly informants from the days before the Long March as she went about investigating the case. The atmosphere of early 1980s China is well done, that time when foreigners were still something of a rarity and few of them had simple tourism in mind. [The authors] have recognized how impossible it is to ignore history in China and I like the way [they] have slotted little chunks of it into the story at just the right points. The echoes from China's long-distant and more recent past that reverberate through the story are also treated with considerable (and admirable) restraint. I thought the link between the early communists (Zhu De) and the Buddhist sutras was very clever and could not fault the authors' historical references. Hanging the murder mystery on the poem is brilliant. It's certainly a good read and more that just a romp through Chinese history and culture.
[The authors] seem to me to have a good thing going here - a less global version of the Da Vinci Code springs to mind -." Dr Sue Wiles - Co-author of Women of the Long March, Allen & Unwin 2000
"Thank you for the opportunity to read your book 'The Song....' You may recall how taken I was by your book - in its presentation. I thought the cover exuded a sense of mystery and foreboding. It was easy to read and well crafted. The book enticed me to read it as soon as possible, in fact I started that night. My ignorance of early Chinese history limited my full appreciation of the background, but it was easy to read and consuming.I was touched by the beauty of the story. I am now enthusiastic to read more on that period of Chinese history.. My praises to you both for an interesting novel. Hope there is more to come!" Katherine Kouvaras 15 July 2007
The story is set in southwest China during the early 1980s, immediately following the Cultural Revolution and at the start of China's amazing economic transformation. A man and a woman, one a visiting Japanese lecturer, the other a museum assistant, are found dead in the foreigners' compound at Sichuan University. Superintendent Zhang is assigned the case but she soon realizes that it involves much more than a couple's apparent suicide. Zhang's investigation takes her back into China's distant past to the Tang Dynasty, to uncover a most terrible secret.
All profits from the sale of The Song of Enduring Sorrow are used to further the work of the BML Research Centre. The Blue Mountains Legal Research Centre aims to minimise child and animal harm by improving the quality and availability of information concerning the care and protection of both animals and children.
You can buy the book Now !!!
GO TO: http://www.chinachildlaw.com/song/
中国
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Guqin Songby rofrno3,287 views
Mistery
CoreaSB 3 years ago