A SONG TO DROWN RIVERS by Ann Liang ~ A Book Review

I was already amazed by the beautiful prose and the richness of the characters in A SONG TO DROWN RIVERS, so I was curious. Who is the author?

Turns out that Ann Liang has a page in Wikipedia dedicated to her. She is described as a Chinese-Australian author, who was born in 2000. That makes her only 24. How could she possibly write so well about grief and tragedy?

But then, Ms. Liang has probably not had the adolescenese of many Americans. She has probably not spent her time getting wasted at parties. Not because there aren’t any such things in Beijing China, but because she has been too busy writing. Already she has THREE YA books under her belt ~ IF YOU COULD SEE THE SUN, THIS TIME IT’S REAL and I HOPE THIS DOESN’T FIND YOU. 

A SONG TO DROWN RIVERS is her first foray into adult fiction. It is a retelling of the Legend of Xishi (pronounced ZEE-shuh), one of the Famous Four Beauties of the Spring and Autumn period. Set in the Fifth Century BCE, it tells the story of a great beauty who acted as a spy at the court of King Fuchai of the Kingdom of Wu. Xishi is from Yue, a rival kingdom to the south, and her goal is to destroy Wu, so that King Goujian of the Yue can take it over. This actually happened in 473 BCE. What became of Xishi after she’d completed her task is unknown. But I think you will find the end of this volume shocking. Five Stars. 

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