AUDIOBOOK
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Longlisted for the 2024 Carnegie Medal for Excellence in Fiction, a startling and vivid debut novel in stories from acclaimed poet and translator Fiona Sze-Lorrain, featuring deeply compelling Asian women who reckon with the past, violence, and exile-set in Shanghai, Beijing, Singapore, Paris, and New York.
Composed of several interconnected stories, each taking place in a year ending with the number six, ironically a number that in Chinese divination signifies "a smooth life," Dear Chrysanthemums is a novel about the scourge of inhumanity, survival, and past trauma that never leaves. The women in these stories are cooks, musicians, dancers, protestors, mothers and daughters, friends and enemies, all inexplicably connected in one way or another.
"Cooking for Madame Chiang," 1946: Two cooks work for Madame Chiang Kai-shek and prepare a foreign dish craved by their mistress, which becomes a political weapon and leads to their tragic end.
"Death at the Wukang Mansion," 1966: Punished for her extramarital affair, a dancer is transferred to Shanghai during the Cultural Revolution and assigned to an ominous apartment in a building whose other residents often depart in coffins.
"The White Piano," 1966: A budding pianist from New York City settles down in Paris and is assaulted when a mysterious piano arrives from Singapore.
"The Invisible Window," 2016: After their exile following the Tiananmen Square massacre, three women gather in a French cathedral to renew their friendship and reunite in their grief and faith.
With devastating precision, a masterly ear for language, and a profound understanding of both human cruelty and compassion, Fiona Sze-Lorrain weaves Dear Chrysanthemums, an evocative and disturbing portrait of diasporic life, the shared story of uprooting, resilience, artistic expression, and enduring love. Fiona Sze-Lorrain is a fiction writer, poet, musician, translator, and editor. She writes and translates in English, French, and Chinese. She is the author of five poetry collections, most recently Rain in Plural (Princeton, 2020) and The Ruined Elegance (Princeton, 2016), and fifteen books of translation. A finalist for the Los Angeles Times Book Prize and the Best Translated Book Award among other honors, she was a 2019–20 Abigail R. Cohen Fellow at the Columbia Institute for Ideas and Imagination and the inaugural writer-in-residence at the Museo de Arte Latinoamericano de Buenos Aires. She lives in Paris and has performed worldwide as a zheng harpist. "Global polyglot poet/translator/musician Sze-Lorrain's first story collection is deftly embodied by Ho, who effortlessly spans generations, decades, and continents through a dozen interlinked stories that spotlight women hoping to escape turmoil and tragedy...With complementary fidelity, Ho amplifies Sze-Lorrain's resonating text." "Catherine Ho delivers a dynamic performance of this haunting collection of short stories that take place between 1946 and 2016 during the years that end in six, a sacred number in Chinese divination. Ho channels resilient women through tumultuous and traumatic times in Chinese history. Evoking a strong sense of place through rich details and lyrical writing, Ho brings well-developed characters to life. These include a former dancer during the Cultural Revolution, as well as three women who were exiled following the Tiananmen Square massacre. Spanning seven decades in Beijing, New York, Paris, Shanghai, and Singapore, Ho nimbly inhabits a diverse diaspora. While historical background details are spare, Ho's versatile performance elevates this luminous debut."
Composed of several interconnected stories, each taking place in a year ending with the number six, ironically a number that in Chinese divination signifies "a smooth life," Dear Chrysanthemums is a novel about the scourge of inhumanity, survival, and past trauma that never leaves. The women in these stories are cooks, musicians, dancers, protestors, mothers and daughters, friends and enemies, all inexplicably connected in one way or another.
"Cooking for Madame Chiang," 1946: Two cooks work for Madame Chiang Kai-shek and prepare a foreign dish craved by their mistress, which becomes a political weapon and leads to their tragic end.
"Death at the Wukang Mansion," 1966: Punished for her extramarital affair, a dancer is transferred to Shanghai during the Cultural Revolution and assigned to an ominous apartment in a building whose other residents often depart in coffins.
"The White Piano," 1966: A budding pianist from New York City settles down in Paris and is assaulted when a mysterious piano arrives from Singapore.
"The Invisible Window," 2016: After their exile following the Tiananmen Square massacre, three women gather in a French cathedral to renew their friendship and reunite in their grief and faith.
With devastating precision, a masterly ear for language, and a profound understanding of both human cruelty and compassion, Fiona Sze-Lorrain weaves Dear Chrysanthemums, an evocative and disturbing portrait of diasporic life, the shared story of uprooting, resilience, artistic expression, and enduring love. Fiona Sze-Lorrain is a fiction writer, poet, musician, translator, and editor. She writes and translates in English, French, and Chinese. She is the author of five poetry collections, most recently Rain in Plural (Princeton, 2020) and The Ruined Elegance (Princeton, 2016), and fifteen books of translation. A finalist for the Los Angeles Times Book Prize and the Best Translated Book Award among other honors, she was a 2019–20 Abigail R. Cohen Fellow at the Columbia Institute for Ideas and Imagination and the inaugural writer-in-residence at the Museo de Arte Latinoamericano de Buenos Aires. She lives in Paris and has performed worldwide as a zheng harpist. "Global polyglot poet/translator/musician Sze-Lorrain's first story collection is deftly embodied by Ho, who effortlessly spans generations, decades, and continents through a dozen interlinked stories that spotlight women hoping to escape turmoil and tragedy...With complementary fidelity, Ho amplifies Sze-Lorrain's resonating text." "Catherine Ho delivers a dynamic performance of this haunting collection of short stories that take place between 1946 and 2016 during the years that end in six, a sacred number in Chinese divination. Ho channels resilient women through tumultuous and traumatic times in Chinese history. Evoking a strong sense of place through rich details and lyrical writing, Ho brings well-developed characters to life. These include a former dancer during the Cultural Revolution, as well as three women who were exiled following the Tiananmen Square massacre. Spanning seven decades in Beijing, New York, Paris, Shanghai, and Singapore, Ho nimbly inhabits a diverse diaspora. While historical background details are spare, Ho's versatile performance elevates this luminous debut."