Review by Booklist Review
Booker-shortlisted Thien deftly blends historical reinvention, dystopic disaster, mutable nationalities, and chaotic emigration into a haunting narrative of love and loss. Half a century ago, seven-year-old Lina and her father, Wui, arrived at "the Sea," a transit point for travelers "on the way to a better place." Among their "few precious things from Foshan," their last home, is a family photo, proof that Mom, older brother Wei, and (great-)Aunt Oh existed. Also among the deserted pair's few possessions are volumes 3, 70, and 84 of a 90-book collection, The Great Lives of Voyagers. A bookish triad of dislocated voyagers--poet Du Fu, philosopher Baruch Spinoza, and writer Hannah Arendt--don't necessarily stay on the page as they become not-quite disguised Jupiter (an aunt-bestowed nickname), Bento (boyhood moniker), and Blucher (after second husband, Heinrich Blücher), Lina's illuminating, storytelling companions for seven years. What Lina needs most, however, is to know the provenance of her family's fracture. Thien's acknowledgements bear witness to meticulous research into where "certainties . . . are nonexistent, scarce, or blurred," the glorious spaces into which she inserts her exquisite fiction.
From Booklist, Copyright (c) American Library Association. Used with permission.
Review by Publisher's Weekly Review
Thien (Do Not Say We Have Nothing) delivers a stimulating if diffuse novel about migration and storytelling. It takes place in a magical realm called The Sea, where time and space seem to have collapsed. Lina, 7, and her father arrive here as refugees from their home city of Foshan in what was once China, and encounter fellow displaced people from around the world. As they wait for the rest of their family to join them, Lina and her father reread the three books they fled with--children's biographies of poet Du Fu, philosopher Baruch Spinoza, and historian Hannah Arendt. At 10, Lina meets their neighbors Jupiter, Bento, and Blucher, who know an uncanny amount about Du, Spinoza, and Arendt, and hail from those three thinkers' respective times and places. Thien alternates Lina's story with lengthy biographical passages devoted to the three historical figures. In the present, Lina, her father, and their new friends pass their days discussing history and philosophy, sharing stories, and searching for meaning ("What we call now has no solidity," claims the Arendt-like Blucher, prompting Lina's father to respond, "Maybe imagination is a way to find that place"). Thien hints intriguingly at deeper themes of grief and interconnection, but they're left underdeveloped. There's much here to admire, but it doesn't quite hang together. (May)
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Review by Library Journal Review
Thien's fourth novel (following the Booker Prize-shortlisted Do Not Say We Have Nothing) melds sci-fi with historical literary fiction, using time as a lens through which to discuss the underlying questions that haunt humanity. Crossing centuries, each of the novel's four time periods (including the spaces in between them) is meticulously described to set the scene. The novel features Lina, the anchor to the story, plus three other prominent characters from different eras (Bento, a 17th-century Jewish scholar; Blucher, a philosopher in 1930s Germany; and Jupiter, a Tang Dynasty poet), whose stories play out separately and in the strange, shape-shifting building where they all collide. Thien asks readers to consider what it means to be human and illustrates the concept of life itself as a universal multigenerational experience--a difficult undertaking that the book navigates with nuance. VERDICT To say that Thien's novel is relevant to most contemporary audiences is inadequate; it would resonate with readers of any era. This philosophical work might best be savored in short bursts. Like a visiting a vast museum, to take everything in at once is to have too much information to absorb fully.--Elizabeth Chandler
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Review by Kirkus Book Review
In a haven for the displaced called the Sea, a girl tends her ailing father and is nurtured by fellow refugees from across the centuries. "The buildings of the Sea are made of time," Lina's father, Wui Shin, says. "I knew that he was pulling my leg and also that he was being truthful," she tells readers from a vantage point 50 years on. Time is mutable in Thien's adventurous fourth novel: Helpful neighbors Bento, Blucher, and Jupiter have names that connect them to 17th-century philosopher Baruch Spinoza, 20th-century political theorist Hannah Arendt, and Tang Dynasty poet Du Fu, protagonists of the three volumes in The Great Lives of Voyagers series Lina's father snatched as they fled China. Bento, Blucher, and Jupiter recount the lives of Spinoza, Arendt, and Du Fu in ways that demonstrate their intimate familiarity with these dispossessed exiles. Other than the fact that all are homeless, it's initially hard to see what else links these characters and stories to Lina and her father, or how this faintly surreal narrative fits in with Thien's previous novels firmly anchored in the grim realities of 20th-century totalitarianism. The continuities become clearer in the novel's searing second section, which reveals the brutal truth behind Wui Shin's former job title, "a systems engineer managing the structures of cyberspace," and revisits themes of coercion, betrayal, and guilt that made Thien's Booker Prize--shortlistedDo Not Say We Have Nothing (2016) so powerful. This is a more abstract work, though its highly intellectual nature is counterpointed by riveting scenes of terror and flight, in particular a nail-biting account of Arendt's arduous journey across Nazi-occupied Europe to finally head for America in an overcrowded, unstable steamship. If we sometimes lose sight of Lina in these densely interwoven plot strands, that is a risk Thien is willing to take in her bold attempt to reach new ground in an already distinguished literary career. Challenging fiction that serious readers will find enriching and rewarding. Copyright (c) Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.
Copyright (c) Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.
