books review

Xiaolu Guo

Edinburgh International Book Festival

Brilliantly talented novelist and filmmaker Xiaolu Guo treated a rapt audience to a reading of an unpublished work, comprising a sequence of letters that evocatively portray Beijing through a series of reminisces. Xiaolu describes her own, highly unusual and semi-autobiographical style as attempts to get rid of the "historical shadows" that she feels lingers around so much of modern Chinese literature, and it is certainly a very different, and far more personal, image of China portrayed through her writing. The discussion that followed gave a good insight into Xiaolu's writing process and the problems with translating between English and Chinese. A captivating talk , and one that received the most enthusiastic applause I've heard from a book festival audience this year.

Peppers Theatre, 17 Aug, 6.45pm, fpp n/a

published: Aug-2008

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