DNF at 33%. I know that both Ling Zhang and Shelley Bryant, the translator, been widely acclaimed, and the writing was lovely. But it was just too slow for me. A lot of it was the recollection/memories of the main characters rather than focusing on an overarching plot. We start with the deaths of the three main characters, Pastor Billy, Ian and Zhao, and flash back from there. So we know how things are going to turn out. The novel depends on our wanting to study the character of Ah Yan. Because that’s what this is, a character study. Unfortunately, she wasn’t nearly compelling enough for me to want to continue this.

In parts the writing felt too long-winded and too introspective, leading to a uniformity in tone that made moments that were meant to be urgent and nail-biting, such as Pastor Billy saving Ah Yan from infection, move nearly as slowly as the contemplative parts.

I liked the depiction of tea-making and the description of rural life in pre-WWII China, but overall, this was more style than substance for me.

There are some really beautiful descriptions and the writing is lovely, but I never felt invested in the story. Jumping from each character’s POV and back and forth through time was discombobulating. I also struggled with the instances of abuse throughout.

Thanks to the publisher for providing an ARC through Net Galley in exchange for an honest review.

An excellent journey through four characters' lives during war time. I really enjoyed the prose and way the narrative continued to intersect as their paths crossed. Not my usual style, I found it a bit slow to get into and get one's bearings but well worth the patience.

I received an ARC of this book through NetGalley. I am providing an honest review voluntarily.

The premise of the book sounded great. The bones of the story were good, but there were definitely some things I didn't like about the book.

TRIGGER WARNING: bombing, gore, sexual assault, and death of pets

First and foremost, the text was overly descriptive, and and was heavily overburdened by information that was unrelated to the plot. The descriptions were so incredibly detailed that it took me off topic and made it easy for the plot to get lost. There was a lot of telling rather than showing, leading to chapters that were excessively long and kind of boring. The entire story is narrated through the point of view of various characters, including two pet dogs. The chapter with the dogs really lost me. As much as I love dogs, the story being told from their point of view involved complex humanized emotions that wasn't believable.

The entire time I read, I waited to find out what actually happened. The story went from the future and worked backwards, with scattered periods out of order. I found myself often getting distracted, and waiting for something to happen. There was a lot of focus on the status of a woman who was sexually assaulted, and I didn't especially love how it was handled by any of the characters. When the end of the book finally arrived, the final chapter would have been sufficient, except for the presence of an epilogue that was completely unnecessary.

Overall, the book had so much potential, but maybe because it was originally written in a language other than it was translated to, it left something lacking for me.

This was beautiful. Difficult to read, it's about three men and a woman whose lives intertwine in rural China during WW2 and it doesn't shy away from either the horrors of war or the little struggles of everyday life. I thoroughly enjoyed reading this book.