Ha Jin grew up in mainland China and served in the People's Liberation Army in his teens for five years. After leaving the army, he worked for three years at a railroad company in a remote northeastern city, Jiamusi, and then went to college in Harbin, majoring in English. He has published in English nine novels, four story collections, four volumes of poetry, a book of essays, and a biography of Li Bai. His novel Waiting won the National Book Award for Fiction, the PEN/Faulkner Award, and was a finalist for the Pulitzer Prize. Ha Jin is William Fairfield Warren Distinguished Professor in English and Creative Writing at Boston University, and he has been elected a fellow of the American Academy of Arts and Letters and the American Academy of Arts and Sciences. His writing has been translated into more than thirty languages.
“[Ha Jin] conveys in supple prose what Beijing inevitably will
regard as too much truth about the history of the [Chinese
Communist Party]…with a deft pen fueled by reading, imagination,
and empathy, he reveals mental life…the most extraordinary
achievement of the novel is its brilliantly credible evocation of
the ordinary.” —New York Review of Books
“An epic historical novel of communist China, illuminated through
the life of an extraordinary real-life woman…The redemption of a
historical figure whose life ended in political disgrace.” —Kirkus
Reviews
“The Woman Back from Moscow is a brilliant historical novel of a
young woman who dares to pursue her artistic dream amid the
political shadow of China from the late 1930s to the 1960s, a
poignant revelation of Chinese affinity to Russian culture and
politics, and a penetrating study of the powerful Communist Party
leaders, whose love and lust spell the rise and fall of those close
to them, all told in Ha Jin’s signature prose, simple yet hypnotic.
The Woman Back from Moscow reminds me of Wolf Hall, in its epic
range and intensity and importance. Readers of historical fiction
and literary fiction will relish this masterpiece.” —Weina Dai
Randel, Wall Street Journal bestselling author of The Last Rose of
Shanghai and Night Angels
“The Woman Back from Moscow is an enthralling tale of courage,
conviction, and resilience. Ha Jin’s evocative portrayal of Sun
‘Yomei’ Weishi—an idealistic actress turned stage director—reflects
his meticulous research and powerful imagination. During the
Cultural Revolution, Sun gets caught in the cross hairs of Jiang
Ching, Mao Zedong’s vengeful wife. Deeply compelling.” —Vanessa
Hua, author of Forbidden City
“The Woman Back from Moscow is a rich and fascinating work that
questions what art can and should be in times of tremendous
political and social upheaval. Chronicling one brilliant
woman’s turbulent artistic career, and her unrelenting pursuit
of her own aesthetic ideals, this story also brings monumental
figures like Mao Zedong, Zhou Enlai, and Jiang Ching down to
their true, smaller-than-human scale. Ha Jin’s disarmingly
straightforward yet fastidiously imagined prose looks clearly into
the full range of human desire and pettiness. This is an epic
undertaking by an essential Chinese and American writer.” —Meng
Jin, author of Self-Portrait with Ghost and Little Gods
Ask a Question About this Product More... |