“A quiet, eloquent, elegant book, rich in feeling.” —Jonathan
Yardley, Washington Post
May 2002 | Memoir
$14 Paperback
ISBN: 1-56947-282-3
All rights: McClelland & Stewart
"[S]traightforward and
poetic ... illuminates the contradictions of wartime as seen through
the eyes of a child." —Publishers Weekly
"Luminous recollections
of a lost world ... filled with vivid details of daily and family life." —Kirkus Reviews
"[A] testament to the irrepressible
human spirit." —The Bloomsbury Review
"[S]earing.... Kwan has a tender and
unflinching eye ... the same hallucinatory power as J.G. Ballard's Empire
of the Sun. A mesmerizing read." —Booklist
"Kwan writes with spare, eloquent
prose.... This book will teach you about the human spirit." —Globe and Mail
The Eurasian son of a Chinese railroad executive, young David lives in a world
of privilege until the onset of World War II. His father serves the Japanese
while secretly working for the Resistance. After the war, his father imprisoned,
he leaves the country at the age of twelve, unsure that they will ever be reunited.
This memoir was awarded the Kiriyama Pacific Rim Book Prize for Nonfiction.
MICHAEL DAVID KWAN was born in China and spent his adult
life in Canada. He died in May of 2001.
