Do Not Say We Have Nothing

Madeleine Thien

From Shelf: The 2017 Women's Prize for Fiction Longlist

Shortlisted for the Man Booker Prize 2016, 2017 Folio and Baileys Prizes, and winner of the 2016 Giller Prize: an epic and resonant novel about the far-reaching effects of China's revolutionary history, told through the stories of two interlinked musical families, from the 1940s to the present day.

'A moving and extraordinary evocation of the 20th-century tragedy of China... Compelling' Guardian SHORTLISTED FOR THE WOMEN'S PRIZE FOR FICTION AND THE MAN BOOKER PRIZE In Canada in 1991, ten-year-old Marie and her mother invite a guest into their home. Ai- Ming has fled China in the aftermath of the Tiananmen Square protests. As her relationship with Marie deepens, Ai-Ming tells the story of her family in revolutionary China, from the crowded teahouses in the first days of Chairman Mao's ascent to the Beijing demonstrations of 1989. And she speaks of three musicians - the shy and brilliant composer Sparrow, the violin prodigy Zhuli, and the enigmatic pianist Kai - who struggled during China's relentless Cultural Revolution to remain loyal to one another and to the music they have devoted their lives to. Their fates reverberate through the years, with deep and lasting consequences for Ai-Ming - and for Marie. Do Not Say We Have Nothing magnificently brings to life one of the most significant political regimes of the 20th century and its traumatic legacy. 'A magnificent epic of Chinese history, richly detailed and beautifully written' Kate Saunders, The Times