About the Book
Li Tai-tai, known as Bittersweet, returns to her hometown of Guilin, China in the 1970s after having lived 15 years in the United States. Her quiet routine is disrupted when a mysterious blue-eyed Chinese man appears on her doorstep and, without explanation, gives her a seemingly ordinary quilt. Hidden inside it, she discovers hundreds of silk pages containing a long, intimate confession written by her unidentified visitor, Hardu. As Bittersweet reads, the narrative shifts between her present life—haunted by memory, loss, and the lingering trauma of her granddaughter Lisa’s disappearance—and Hardu’s past in early-twentieth century Shanghai, where he grew up as a mixed-race orphan who survived as a ricksha boy, counterfeiter, and petty criminal. The novel intertwines these timelines, gradually revealing that Hardu’s story is inextricably connected to Bittersweet’s own buried past and the unresolved fate of her long-lost granddaughter. A multi-generational narrative that unfurls in the captivating, textured atmosphere of Shanghai in the mid-twentieth century, Double Thunder is a heart-rending, unforgettable novel.
Praise for Double Thunder
Even though this magnificent novel takes place in the mid-twentieth century in a completely different culture, the parallels with what is happening today—renaming landmarks, banning words and concepts that threaten those in power, rewriting history, to name a few—are frighteningly apparent. In this sense, Li’s story transcends its time and place and presents a parable for today’s world. And yet she also offers us courageous, resilient characters, who find ways around political and personal oppression to hold on to their humanity. Despite exploring the dark side of our species, this novel also demonstrates that the human spirit is stronger than any political movement; the human mind will not be thwarted. Ultimately, Double Thunder offers a triple experience: a gripping story of a historical time and place, a stark warning for the present time, and finally, a timeless tale of human survival.
―Joan Matthews, author of Hunger in a House of Plenty
Praise for Bittersweet
Bittersweet sheds light on the events of a tumultuous century as well as the shifting roles of Chinese women.
―New York Times Book Review
Taken as history alone, this is a fascinating book. But it is also an absorbing novel, full of private frustrations and excursions to the market; philosophical mornings in the garden and difficult relatives; intimate cups of tea and the satisfying gradual evolution of a character.
―The New Yorker
Li spins a fascinating chronicle of female subservience, in which wedding and birth customs, infanticide and the cruel rivalries between wifely “battalions” all come vividly alive.
―Publishers Weekly
A Panoramic whirl through Chinese history.
―Kirkus Reviews
About the Author
Leslie Li i is the author of the award-winning hybrid novel The Forest for the Trees, the historical novel Bittersweet, and the culinary memoir Daughter of of Heaven. Her personal essays and feature articles have appeared in The New York Times, The Christian Science Monitor, Gourmet, Travel & Leisure, Condé Nast Traveler, Saveur, Modern Maturity, Dorothy Parker’s Ashes, and elsewhere. She lives in New York City.
Author website: www.leslieli.com