White Ghost Girls
The 2006 Los Angeles Times Book Prize for First Fiction went to Alice Greenway's White Ghost Girls.
Work Information
A debut novel shaped by postwar Hong Kong and fractured memory.
The Los Angeles Times recognized the novel in First Fiction. It moves between family history and postwar Hong Kong.
Book Information
- Publisher
- Grove Press, Black Cat
- Published
- 2006-01-05
- Pages
- 192 pages
- Language
- 英語
- Size
- 13.34 x 1.27 x 19.69 cm
- ISBN-13
- 9780802170187
- ISBN-10
- 0802170188
- Price
- 5312 JPY
- Category
- 洋書/Literature & Fiction/Genre Fiction/Historical
Summer 1967. The turmoil of the Maoist revolution is spilling over into Hong Kong and causing unrest as war rages in neighboring Vietnam. White Ghost Girls is the story of Frankie and Kate, two American sisters living in a foreign land in a chaotic time. With their war-photographer father off in Vietnam, Marianne, their beautiful but remote mother, keeps the family close by. Although bound by a closeness of living overseas, the sisters could not be more different Frankie pulses with curiosity and risk, while Kate is all eyes and ears. Marianne spends her days painting watercolors of the lush surroundings, leaving the girls largely unsupervised, while their Chinese nanny, Ah Bing, does her best to look after them. One day in a village market, they decide to explore with tragic results. In Alice Greenway’s exquisite gem of a novel, two girls tumble into their teenage years against an extraordinary backdrop both sensuous and dangerous. This astonishing literary debut is a tale of sacrifice and solidarity that gleams with the kind of intense, complicated love that only exists between sisters.
Reviews
-
Interesting read
A bit much and at the same time not enough. It’s an evocative book nonetheless. A very visual style of writing
-
Brilliant evocation of growing up
I had read and loved her second book the semi autobiographical The Bird Skinner, so was intrigued to read her first novel. She spins a most absorbing tale of life in Hong Kong as a girl entering puberty somewhat under the shadow of a much adored older sister. There's a point in the story when I became aware that something was going to happen. The author holds back the development of the plot raising the tension and you are hooked. Is this autobiographical. It feels compellingly a s though it were.
-
A powerful story packed into 150 pages
The book is well written with lots of beautiful descriptions. It raises many questions about family relationships gleaned from the narrator's point of view. The narrator, a young girl of 13 and her older sister live in Hong Kong during the Vietnam War where their father is a photograph for Time magazine. The girls run free under the care of their amah as their mother occupies her time painting and socializing with other ladies. The assumption of safety from the turmoil of the world is shattered for the girls in an event that changes the lives of everyone. A good story with many elements that everyone can relate to.
-
Surprise book of the year.
Found this book through the recommendation of a friend. Looking at life thru the eyes of a 14 yr old. Intervoven with her father's desire to photograph the war and a tragic family death it makes a moving read.
-
Pretty good
I liked the style and length of it, cool story