Lost in the Long March
A Novel
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- $12.99
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- $12.99
Publisher Description
From a rising literary star, award-winning author Michael X. Wang, an epic historical novel, set against the tense backdrop of the Long March and Mao’s rise to power, that tells a powerful and moving story of two ordinary people.
China, 1934: A naive orphan and shy gunsmith, Ping, has fallen in love with Yong, who is a sophisticated veteran, a skilled marksman, and a true believer in Marxist ideology. Winning her affections will take an ideological battle—something he does not understand. To make matters worse, Yong has shown interest in Ping’s best friend, Luo. On the eve of a great Communist defeat, Ping sabotages Luo’s rifle, causing the bullet to backfire into his friend’s head. The army begins its year-long retreat, known as the Long March, and Yong turns to Ping for comfort and companionship. Ping deeply regrets killing his friend, and as his relationship with Yong blossoms, he is saddened that it will always be colored by guilt.
Yong soon becomes pregnant. She hates the way the baby inside is changing her, both physically and emotionally. The Red Army can’t retreat with a crying infant, so they need to find someone close to take the baby in. Ping and Yong leave their son with a woman, promising to return once the war is won. When World War II breaks out and Japanese soldiers arrive, their 12-year-old son decides to enlist in the Japanese army to find his parents, though he quickly begins to fear for his life . . .
Deeply moving and brilliantly written, Michael X. Wang’s Lost in the Long March is an exploration of how the history of a country is always its people, though their stories are often the first to be lost.
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
Wang's thoughtful and richly detailed debut novel (after the PEN/Robert W. Bingham Award–winning collection Further News of Defeat) follows several characters swept up in Mao Zedong's Communist uprising in the 1930s. The shy Ping and clownish Haiwu both fall for the same woman in their platoon, Yong, a dedicated Marxist and crack sharpshooter. Yong eventually marries Ping and becomes pregnant. Meanwhile, Haiwu gets together with the pregnant Cho, who fled from a landowner's harem and renounces her "exploiter" to the Communists. During the retreat of the Long March in 1934, Ping and Yong must leave their baby son, Little Turnip, to be raised by strangers in the mountains. Meanwhile, the ever good-natured Haiwu takes it all in stride, even when Mao kicks his prosthetic leg in jest. Later, during the Second Sino-Japanese War, when Little Turnip is eight, he leaves to tag along with the Japanese soldiers, hoping they will join up with his parents' army and bring him closer to them. While some knowledge of 20th-century Chinese history will be helpful, Wang does a great job showing how the bit players in this large-scale historical drama come to grips with the turbulent period and struggle to survive. Thanks to the colorful characters, Wang's saga is consistently engaging.
