A Free Life - Hardcover

Jin, Ha

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0375424652 ISBN 13: 9780375424656

Publisher: Pantheon Books, 2007

Synopsis

In the wake of the Tiananmen Square massacre, Nan Wu, who had studied political science in the U.S. in the mid-1980s, leaves China with his wife, Pingping, and son, Taotao, to seek the freedom of the West, embarking on a migration that takes them through the heart of contemporary America in search of financial stability, belonging, and the American dream. 75,000 first printing.

About this title

Review:

Praise for the works of Ha Jin:
WAR TRASH
"Powerfully moving... Brilliant and original... Timeless and universal... Nearly perfect;"
--Russell Banks, "The New York Times Book Review
"THE CRAZED
"Reading [Ha Jin] is almost like falling in love: you experience anxiety, profound self-consciousness, and an uncomfortable sensitivity to the world--and somehow it's a pleasure... Like the best realist writers, Ha Jin sneaks emotional power into the plainest declarative sentences."
--"The New Yorker
"THE BRIDEGROOM
"Shows that Ha Jin could teach some native-born writers a few things about the beauty of spare prose and the power of a few well-chosen words."
--"USA Today
"WAITING
"Achingly beautiful... Ha Jin depicts the details of social etiquette, of food, or rural family relationships and the complex and alarmingly primitive fabric of provincial life with that absorbed passion for minutiae characteristic of Dickens and Balzac."
--"Los Angeles Times Book Review
""Has the stripped-down simplicity of a fable... It casts a spell that doesn't break once... Ha Jin has the kind of effortless command that most writers can only dream about."
"--The New Yorks Times Magazine"

"From the Hardcover edition."

"Exquisite and resonant...Jin has fashioned a ruminative, capacious, covertly ironic and quietly revealing tale of one family's pursuit of the American Dream." --"Los Angeles Times""Striking. . . . Jin's language has ripened into something extraordinary." --"The Washington Post Book World""["A Free Life"] transforms the genre.... The narrative unfolds on such an intimate, domestic scale...that it takes a while to realize that this is also an epic." --Robert Pinsky, "Slate""A leisurely, generous tale....As vast and unbounded as the brave and overwhelming new world it describes." --"Boston Globe"

"Exquisite and resonant...Jin has fashioned a ruminative, capacious, covertly ironic and quietly revealing tale of one family's pursuit of the American Dream."

--"Los Angeles Times"

"Striking. . . . Jin's language has ripened into something extraordinary."

--"The Washington Post Book World"

"["A Free Life"] transforms the genre.... The narrative unfolds on such an intimate, domestic scale...that it takes a while to realize that this is also an epic."

--Robert Pinsky, "Slate"

"A leisurely, generous tale....As vast and unbounded as the brave and overwhelming new world it describes."

--"Boston Globe"

-Exquisite and resonant...Jin has fashioned a ruminative, capacious, covertly ironic and quietly revealing tale of one family's pursuit of the American Dream.-

--Los Angeles Times

-Striking. . . . Jin's language has ripened into something extraordinary.-

--The Washington Post Book World

-[A Free Life] transforms the genre.... The narrative unfolds on such an intimate, domestic scale...that it takes a while to realize that this is also an epic.-

--Robert Pinsky, Slate

-A leisurely, generous tale....As vast and unbounded as the brave and overwhelming new world it describes.-

--Boston Globe

"Exquisite and resonant...Jin has fashioned a ruminative, capacious, covertly ironic and quietly revealing tale of one family's pursuit of the American Dream."

--Los Angeles Times

"Striking. . . . Jin's language has ripened into something extraordinary."

--The Washington Post Book World

"[A Free Life] transforms the genre.... The narrative unfolds on such an intimate, domestic scale...that it takes a while to realize that this is also an epic."

--Robert Pinsky, Slate

"A leisurely, generous tale....As vast and unbounded as the brave and overwhelming new world it describes."

--Boston Globe

About the Author:

Ha Jin left his native China in 1985 to attend Brandeis University. He is the author of the internationally best-selling novel Waiting, which won the PEN/Faulkner Award and the National Book Award; War Trash, which won the PEN/Faulkner Award, The Crazed; In the Pond; the story collections The Bridegroom, which won the Asian American Literary Award, Under the Red Flag, which won the Flannery O’Connor Award for Short Fiction, and Ocean of Words, which won the PEN/Hemingway Award; and three books of poetry. He is a professor of English at Boston University and lives in the Boston area.

About this edition

• Publisher: Pantheon Books
• Publication date: 2007
• ISBN 10: 0375424652
• ISBN 13: 9780375424656
• Binding: Hardcover
• Edition number: 1
• Number of pages: 660