BALZAC AND THE LITTLE CHINESE SEAMSTRESS is an enchanting tale that captures the magic of reading and the wonder of romantic awakening. An immediate international bestseller, it tells the story of two hapless city boys exiled to a remote mountain village for re-education during China's infamous Cultural Revolution. There the two friends meet the daughter of the local tailor and discover a hidden stash of Western classics in Chinese translation. As they flirt with the seamstress and secretly devour these banned works, the two friends find transit from their grim surroundings to worlds they never imagined.
Reviews
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When two boys discover a suitcase of banned Western literature (translated) during their re-education in the remote countryside of China, anything is possible. Enlightenment falls upon the Cultural Revolution with thunder and drums, depicting as well the glory of carnal love and, more subtly, the idea of individualism. Both boys retell the stories to the villagers and earn recognition from the elders, as well as from the beautiful little seamstress. Read with the tenderness it deserves by B.D. Wong, the tale unfolds to inter-mingle East and West with touching results. This is a book that can be listened to over and over to hear the missed inflections and the astonishingly vivid details. B.H.B. Winner of AudioFile Earphones Award, Winner of 2004 ALA/ YALSA Recording (c) AudioFile 2003, Portland, Maine
The New York Times Book Review...
"John Grisham is about as good a storyteller as we've got."
Entertainment Weekly...
"The kind of book you read slowly because you don't want it to end ... John Grisham takes command of this literary category just as forcefully as he did legal thrillers with The Firm.... Never let it be said this man doesn't know how to spin a good yarn."
Publishers Weekly...
"Characters that no reader will forget. .. prose as clean and strong as any Grisham has yet laid down ... and a drop-dead evocation of a time and place that mark this novel as a classic slice of Americana."
Seattle Times...
"Some of the finest dialogue of his career ... Every detail rings clear and true, and nothing is wasted."
Digital Rights Information
OverDrive WMA Audiobook
Burn to CD:
Not permitted
Transfer to device:
Permitted (6 times)
Transfer to Apple® device:
Permitted
Public performance:
Not permitted
File-sharing:
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Peer-to-peer usage:
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All copies of this title, including those transferred to portable devices and other media, must be deleted/destroyed at the end of the lending period.
Balzac and the Little Chinese Seamstress
by Dai Sijie
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