Tiananmen Square by Lai Wen

 This is a sensitive and moving story about a young girl’s coming of age culminating in the horror of Tiananmen Square. Many people who read this novel won’t be old enough to recall those events but I am, which made it even more interesting to me. 

Lai grows up in the shadow of the increasingly oporessive Communist government. Her mostly silent father was broken by the Cultural Revolution; her mother is frustrated and bitter;  but her strong, witty and vulgar grandmother understands her more than the rest of her family. Lai’s life is dominated by her childhood friend Gen who saves her from a bad situation. But when she goes to university she meets the dramatic Anna and her group of friends who take her out of herself and show her a different world but their rebellion ends in tragedy.

It’s a book that asks what price you should pay for freedom? This book is especially poignant in the light of how the totalitarian Chinese government has taken over Tibet and Hong Kong.

I received this free ebook from NetGalley in return for an honest review.