Book Alert / The Old Capital -- A Novel of Taipei

The Old Capital -- A Novel of Taipei by Chu T'ien-hsin, translated by Howard Goldblatt, Columbia UP '07, 221 pages, ISBN #1593760329.  Notes, unillustrated.

In 1949, when Mao Zedong's communist forces prevailed in China's civil war, his enemy Chaing Kai-shek fled to Taiwan and a bittersweet life with his people in exile. As the disconnect from their homeland approaches 60 years, the dwindling number of Chinese who remember the old days have their memories but often little else.

Young author Chu T'ien-hsin examines these themes of nostalgia and remembrance in an interconnected novella and four stories that asks the question, "Is it possible that none of your memories count?" An intellectual in her own right, she worked as a literary editor and has published other short stories. Howard Goldblatt translated the material from the Chinese.