Half A Lifelong Romance
  • Published: 24 September 2014
  • ISBN: 9780141189390
  • Imprint: Penguin Classics
  • Format: Paperback
  • Pages: 400
  • RRP: $29.99
Categories:

Half A Lifelong Romance

Formats & editions
EBook
31 Jul 2014
Paperback
24 Sep 2014
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From the author of Lust, Caution, this is an unforgettable story of a love affair set in 1930s Shanghai

Manzhen is a young worker in a Shanghai factory, where she meets Shijun, the son of wealthy merchants. Despite family complications, they fall in love and begin to dream of a shared life together - until circumstances force them apart. When they are reunited after a separation of many years, can they start their relationship again? Or is it destined to be the romance of only half a lifetime? This affectionate and captivating novel tells the moving story of an enduring love affair, and offers a fascinating window onto Chinese life in the first half of the twentieth century.
  • Published: 24 September 2014
  • ISBN: 9780141189390
  • Imprint: Penguin Classics
  • Format: Paperback
  • Pages: 400
  • RRP: $29.99
Categories:

About the author

Eileen Chang

Eileen Chang (1920-1995) was born into an aristocratic family in Shanghai. Chang studied literature at the University of Hong Kong, but the Japanese attack on the city in 1941 forced her to return to occupied Shanghai, where she was able to publish the stories and essays (collected in two volumes, Romances, 1944, and Written on Water, 1945) that soon made her a literary star.
The rise of Communist influence made it increasingly difficult for Chang to continue living in Shanghai; she moved to Hong Kong in 1952, then emigrated to the United States three years later. In spite of the tremendous revival of interest in her work that began in Taiwan and Hong Kong in the 1970s, and that later spread to mainland China, Chang became ever more reclusive as she grew older. Eileen Chang was found dead in her Los Angeles apartment in September 1995.

Also by Eileen Chang

Jasmine Tea
Traces of Love
Red Rose, White Rose
Lust, Caution
Love In A Fallen City
See all

Praise for Half A Lifelong Romance

It took 46 years, but at long last English-language readers are now able to enjoy one of Eileen Chang's most popular works, Half a Lifelong Romance. A dramatic story of love, betrayal, opportunism and family oppression set in 1930s Shanghai, it is an enveloping, haunting and insightful read, rich in Chang's trademark passionate prose

Wall Street Journal

Eileen Chang is the fallen angel of Chinese literature

Ang Lee

A dazzling and distinctive fiction writer

New York Times Book Review

Chang's world is a stark and mysterious place where people strive to find their way in love but often fail under the pressures of family, tradition, and reputation

New Yorker

Karen S. Kingsbury's capable new translation of the novel

The Times Literary Supplement
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