Do Not Say We Have Nothing by Madeleine Thien

Back in Canada, outside of The Book of Records, it is time for Ai-ming to try to cross over to the United States: there, she has heard that she can get asylum as a Chinese student. Although she ideologically disagrees with Ba Lute on many things-she doesn’t have as much faith in Communism as he does-Big Mother Knife has three sons with her husband: Sparrow, Da Shan, and Flying Bear. Meanwhile, Big Mother Knife, once the war ends, returns to her husband, Ba Lute, who fought in the Communist resistance and has returned a revolutionary hero. The book ends in the middle of a chapter, though, and Wen and Swirl finally meet in person when they are both at a bookstore-owned by Ling’s aunt, the Old Cat-looking for the next chapter of The Book of Records. Wen woos Swirl, in fact, by sending her chapters of The Book of Records, which is a captivating novel about two lovers who lose touch with each other after the Communist Revolution. Swirl sings so beautifully that she is wooed by Wen the Dreamer, the youngest child of a wealthy family of landowners in rural China. In it, they read the stories of Big Mother Knife and Swirl, two sisters who, during the Chinese Civil War, are young women who make their living by singing and performing in different towns across the countryside. Ai-ming begins to read the book to Li-ling.

One day, Ai-ming discovers in the pile of documents under the dining table The Book of Records, a piece of writing passed down through her family for generations. Ai-ming stays with Li-ling and her mother for three months, and she and Li-ling become very close. Ai-ming is 19, and she was involved in the Tiananmen Square riots in China, which is why she needs to seek political refuge in Canada. It is from Ling, a family friend and the wife of Kai’s former music teacher, who requests that Li-ling’s mother host her daughter, Ai-ming, who is in Canada and has nowhere to go. One day, Li-ling’s mother receives a long letter from China. He leaves her and her mother alone in cold Canada, and, after his death, her mother becomes obsessed with looking through the many documents he left behind. While he was alive, Li-ling knew her father as a quiet, withdrawn man but after his death discovers that in China, he was a renowned pianist. Now an adult, Li-ling reflects on when she was only 10 years old and her father, Jiang Kai, commits suicide.

Do Not Say We Have Nothing by Madeleine Thien