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4th out of 19 books
—
11 voters
The Flowers of War
by
Geling Yan
December 1937. The Japanese have taken Nanking. A group of terrified schoolgirls hides in the compound of an American church. Among them is Shujuan, through whose thirteen-year-old eyes we witness the shocking events that follow.
Run by Father Engelmann, an American priest who has been in China for many years, the church is supposedly neutral ground in the war between China...more
Run by Father Engelmann, an American priest who has been in China for many years, the church is supposedly neutral ground in the war between China...more
Hardcover, 250 pages
Published
January 5th 2012
by Harvill Secker
(first published January 2007)
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A little disappointing.
This was a book that improved a bit as the story progressed - initially I couldn't relax with the dialogue or the points of view of the protaganists, which felt disjointed. I wondered if it was a translation problem, but the translator is very experienced in this field, so I concluded that it must be cultural.
As I relaxed into the style, I became more involved with the schoolgirls in their innocence, the brazen prostitutes and the injured soldiers, all thrown together unde...more
This was a book that improved a bit as the story progressed - initially I couldn't relax with the dialogue or the points of view of the protaganists, which felt disjointed. I wondered if it was a translation problem, but the translator is very experienced in this field, so I concluded that it must be cultural.
As I relaxed into the style, I became more involved with the schoolgirls in their innocence, the brazen prostitutes and the injured soldiers, all thrown together unde...more
A more personal yet no less powerful take on the Nanking invasion by the Chinese. School girls, prostitutes, injured Chinese soldiers all come under the protection of an American priest in a church that is supposed to be off limits because of it's American status. The book takes place almost solely within this church and visits by the priest to what is supposed to be the safety zone. The way people change when confronted with adversity, among untold violence, are avidly portrayed in this novel....more
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This novel, the February pick for the War & Literature Read-Along, is set in 1937-38 Nanking, China during the beginning of the occupation by the Imperial Japanese army at the start of the second Sino-Japanese war. The period beginning mid-December 1937 has become known as “the Rape of Nanking“, for what seems to be very good reason.
The priest at a church ‘compound’ has had thrust upon him the care of twelve young students from an all-girls school, whose parents for various reasons, have not...more
The priest at a church ‘compound’ has had thrust upon him the care of twelve young students from an all-girls school, whose parents for various reasons, have not...more
I really enjoyed the start of this book. It began with a strong setting and interesting characters. Then it oddly turned with the addition of random snippets of the prostitutes’ history likely designed to make you closer to the characters. However, the way they are presented was a random listing of events/memories which jarred me from actually story and I found it difficult to return. It was a pointless addition really; padding that added nothing to the main plot or storyline. At around page, it...more
This is the third novel I've read by this hugely imaginative author. It's full of the same sorts of quirks and diversions as her other works, but is also the most emotionally satisfying. The story of schoolgirls, prostitutes, soldiers and priests taking refuge in a church during the brutal rape of Nanjing in 1937, it offers a suspense-filled, insightful look into what feels like very believable bickering and competition among these mismatched cohabitators, united by fear and the will to survive....more
The Flowers of War is based on a true story; the 1937 Nanking Massacre, when invading Japanese Imperial Army forces killed an estimated 300,000 civilians (this is according to the Chinese. The Japanese maintain the killings were blown out of proportion to incite outrage.) There was also looting and mass rape.
The action in the book is set in a church, where a group of terrified schoolgirls are in hiding from the Japanese forces, unable to get to the 'Safety Zone' where civilians have been told t...more
The action in the book is set in a church, where a group of terrified schoolgirls are in hiding from the Japanese forces, unable to get to the 'Safety Zone' where civilians have been told t...more
The book offers a very promising read. There is a war. There is a priest and his deacon Fabio, cook George Chen and helper Ah Gu, innocent school girls locked up in the church with a group of irreverent prostitutes and a brave soldier, Major Dai. The book was written in a very simple prose, so easy to read that the pages flew by ever so quickly. The characters in the book (as opposed to the ones in the movie) had more depth. I learnt about the plight of the top ranking prostitute named Zhao Yumo...more
This is a book that rates higher than a three but not quite a four star in my book, though some of my opinion may be based in the fact that the style of it is not one I read much and the translation makes some of the writing appear a little awkward at times. It reminds me of the style of the Chinese novelist, Hai Jin and so I take this to be more of a cultural literary style. The basic story is very moving, A priest running a school in Nanking when the Japanese are taking over is trying to prote...more
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Despertada esta obra con motivo de la película reciente, entramos en el drama humano. La guerra, una vez más, es el peor azote de al humanidad que no viene de las nubes sino de la maldad del corazón. En cada guerra, y sigue habiendo muchas, se desata lo peor del ser humano aunque sirve también para despertar lo mejor de algunos, sólo de algunos. Aquí los japoneses son realmente como diablos y esto ocurrió en la guerra invasora contra China. Pero sabemos que los chinos no se diferenciaron mucho e...more
Ispirato a una storia vera, è stato un successo di pubblico e di critica in patria e all’estero. Personalmente l’ho trovato un pò superficiale e abbastanza prevedibile ma analizziamo meglio il romanzo.
Innanzitutto il titolo vuole fare riferimento alle tredici giovani e pure ragazze che vivono nel collegio, le quali presto dovranno fare i conti con una realtà a cui non erano preparate; pronte a schernire, a deridere e a offendere persone diverse dal loro status, solo perché prostitute e non riten...more
Innanzitutto il titolo vuole fare riferimento alle tredici giovani e pure ragazze che vivono nel collegio, le quali presto dovranno fare i conti con una realtà a cui non erano preparate; pronte a schernire, a deridere e a offendere persone diverse dal loro status, solo perché prostitute e non riten...more
Utilizaré el nombre de Nanjing, en pinjin, porque es así como aparece en la novela, pero nosotros solemos referirnos a la ciudad como Nankín (igual que decimos Pekín y no Beijing). Así como Pekín significa “capital del norte”, Nanjing se traduce como “capital del sur”. Y efectivamente lo fue durante varios siglos. En el mes de diciembre de 1937 el ejército imperial japonés entró en Nanjing y arrasó con todo. Asesinó a sangre fría a millares de soldados chinos después de que se rindieran, cometi...more
I wanted to read this book after watching the movie of the same name, starring Christian Bale. The movie was beautiful, breathtaking and heartbreaking - so completley well done. I believe this might be why I held such high expectations for the book itself. I so rarely think that a movie does a better job of telling a story than the book does, but in many ways in this case I do. I felt like most of what we got from the book was a once-over. Not so much detail or emotion, but more of just a storyl...more
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I wish I could say I came across this title of my own accord, but I must confess, it was Ni Ni's performance in the film adaptation that prompted me to track down a copy Geling Yan's The Flowers of War.
For those whose history is a little rusty, the Nanking (Nanjing) Massacre took place in December 1937. Estimates vary depending on the source, but the International Military Tribunal of the Far East cl...more
I wish I could say I came across this title of my own accord, but I must confess, it was Ni Ni's performance in the film adaptation that prompted me to track down a copy Geling Yan's The Flowers of War.
For those whose history is a little rusty, the Nanking (Nanjing) Massacre took place in December 1937. Estimates vary depending on the source, but the International Military Tribunal of the Far East cl...more
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Imagine a church, the attic full of Catholic schoolgirls, the cellar full of whores, and toss a few men in between them to feed them and maintain order...and you get chaos!
What I liked: Tell of the rape of Nanking in a better fashion than Nanjin Requiem did, IMO. Nanjin was far too brutal, like a listing of brutality after brutality... This story, though it rarely left the church walls, told what was going on inside and out. Inside, you got a bunch of ungrateful whores that have bullied their wa...more
What I liked: Tell of the rape of Nanking in a better fashion than Nanjin Requiem did, IMO. Nanjin was far too brutal, like a listing of brutality after brutality... This story, though it rarely left the church walls, told what was going on inside and out. Inside, you got a bunch of ungrateful whores that have bullied their wa...more
This review has been hidden because it contains spoilers. To view it,
click here.
For starters, the plot summary on Goodreads actually describes the movie adaptation, for which some key changes were made. Meaning, there is no Christian Bale character. There are, however, Chinese courtesans taking shelter at an American Catholic church/school compound, where the resident priest and his deacon undertake to hide them.
The book is very short and moves quickly. I found the writing style strangely detached, but had no idea if this was because it was in translation. Great plot and se...more
The book is very short and moves quickly. I found the writing style strangely detached, but had no idea if this was because it was in translation. Great plot and se...more
This is one of those books that deals with a horrifying historical event so you feel bad if you give it a low rating, but, honestly, this novel had problems. None of the characters were likable and it was easy to confuse some of them because they were so superfluous. I didn't really know anything about the "Rape of Nanking" before reading this book so it would have been nice to have gotten some background on Chinese/Japanese relations around this time. Of course, this book is Chinese in origin s...more
La historia, como tal, es muy buena pero el libro en general tiene muchos puntos en contra. Por ejemplo, los personajes me parecen muy pocos desarrollados lo que hace que, incluso cerca del final, la lectura no termine de calar; sucesos importantes están narrados de manera superficial y uno, casi, los pasa por alto; no sé si culpar a la traducción al español pero no me convencen ciertas palabras,frases y oraciones.
En pocas palabras, es un libro interesante si se quiere saber un poco de la masac...more
En pocas palabras, es un libro interesante si se quiere saber un poco de la masac...more
For a book I didn't much like at the beginning, it really captivated me by the end. Initially, the style felt ridiculously simple and... What is the opposite of fluid? Rigid. I started enjoying it more as soon as the soldiers and their stories appeared, when we begin to find out more about what is going on outside the church walls. By the end, the narrative is tight, it's great, and there are only a few pages left! (it's only about 250 pages, nothing these days). It bascially gets progressively...more
May 14, 2013
Mircalla64 (free Liu Xiaobo)
rated it
3 of 5 stars
·
review of another edition
Shelves:
cina
i tredici fiori della sfiga cinese materlineare
tratto da una storia realmente accaduta: tredici prostitute rifugiatesi in una missione religiosa a Nanchino durante l'invasione giapponese si sacrificano al posto delle ragazze del coro e vengono sequestrate dai giapponesi
Se non avessi letto milioni di libri di storia cinese e alcuni di questi sul sacco di Nanchino da parte dei giapponesi nel 1937, questo mi sembrerebbe esagerato, ma il fatto è che i giapponesi si sono macchiati di tali nefandezze...more
tratto da una storia realmente accaduta: tredici prostitute rifugiatesi in una missione religiosa a Nanchino durante l'invasione giapponese si sacrificano al posto delle ragazze del coro e vengono sequestrate dai giapponesi
Se non avessi letto milioni di libri di storia cinese e alcuni di questi sul sacco di Nanchino da parte dei giapponesi nel 1937, questo mi sembrerebbe esagerato, ma il fatto è che i giapponesi si sono macchiati di tali nefandezze...more
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El padre Engelmann y el diacono Fabio Adoranto llevan la parroquia de Santa María Magdalena, y tienen a su cuidado a dieciséis niñas que se han quedado atrapadas, al igual que ellos, en Nanjing cuando la ciudad fue tomada.
Los días transcurren con las niñas escondidas mientras el padre Engelmann busca una salida segura de la ciudad para las niñas, pero la cosa se complica cuando una mañana se presentan de improvisto un grupo de prostitutas pidiendo asilo. Los dos curas son reacios por su precaria...more
Los días transcurren con las niñas escondidas mientras el padre Engelmann busca una salida segura de la ciudad para las niñas, pero la cosa se complica cuando una mañana se presentan de improvisto un grupo de prostitutas pidiendo asilo. Los dos curas son reacios por su precaria...more
On completion: No, this was not a total waste of time. This novel is based on real events. It is about what actually happened in December 1937 in an American church which housed Chinese soldiers, prostitutes and 16 naive schoolgirls while the Japanese invaded and massacred all and everyone in Nanjing. The events are gripping. I wanted to know what would happen in the end. Read this book for the plot, NOT for the writing style. Terrible writing. The author picks all the wrong words.
The audiobook...more
The audiobook...more
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Set in Nanking when Japan invaded China in 1937, the story follows the lives of a Catholic priest, his curate, young female boarders, prostitutes who climbed over a wall of the catholic compound seeking asylum and wounded Chinese soldiers. All the horrors of war are recounted in vivid detail as well as the sacrifices made to ensure the safety of the boarders. Very well written with many memorable characters.
The english translation of the book 13 FLOWERS OF NANJING. Loosely based on a true story, an American priest hides his young female students within the convent walls as the Japanese invade China. As the Japanese troops get closer, 13 prostitutes from a local brothel jump the convent walls to take refuge within the church. What happens next is both heartbreaking and inspirational.
An unvbelievable story ...
An unvbelievable story ...
The reason I read this novel was for the historical information about the horrific actions of the Japanese army when they overtook the Chinese city of Nanking in 1937. For the background history, I am able to give the book a three-star rating. However, the writing was uninspiring, to say the most. The author was unable to create the relationship to the characters for the reader that grips the heart and mind. The plot was rather clumsily laid out, and the enormity of this historical event was not...more
Pretty good story. It's a movie now starring Christian Bale. The trailer looks better than the book although it does change some things - like add a character. It's the story of the Japanese invasion of Nanking in 1937. A group of school girls (Chinese) take shelter in a catholic boarding school. The entire Chinese army has been killed, atrocities are common, food is scarce. A good story of right and wrong, survival, friendship and doing the right thing.
This feels like the ying to Ha Jin's yang in "Nanjing Requiem".
Geling's lead character/s is male whereas Ha Jin's is a female.
Geling's narrative about the infamous Nanjing incident is more vivid and much more cruel compared to Ha Jin's account and much more compact.
It's a toss up but I have to say I enjoyed Geling's novel more.
Geling's lead character/s is male whereas Ha Jin's is a female.
Geling's narrative about the infamous Nanjing incident is more vivid and much more cruel compared to Ha Jin's account and much more compact.
It's a toss up but I have to say I enjoyed Geling's novel more.
An intense telling of events during the seige of Nanking, where a priest and his assistant try to protect schoolgirls and a group of prostitutes from the Japanese soldiers. Very emotional tale of the atrocities of war.
I read and finished the book but was not too impressed. The writing seemed simplistic at times to me but that might have more to do with the translation. A window into a time I had heard much about.
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| Bright Young Things: March 2012- The Flowers of War by Geling Yan | 7 | 12 | Mar 24, 2012 10:05am |
Geling Yan was born in Shanghai, People's Republic of China. She performed as a dancer at age 12. She served in the People's Liberation Army during the Cultural Revolution, in Tibet and later as a journalist in the Sino-Vietnamese War, achieving a rank equivalent to Lieutenant Colonel. Her first novel was published in 1985. She is the author of such novels as The Banquet Bug (published as The Unin...more
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