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Trixi Pudong and the Greater World
Revolution rages in 20th-century China, a rusting container ship sails the world for two decades, and a tiny fairy is frustrated in a northern harbor town. "Trixi Pudong and the Greater World" is a family saga with a magical twist, spanning Shanghai's Golden Age to Hamburg, Germany, 2015. It is a tale of four generations of a Chinese family, torn between their deepest dreams and loyalties.
Shanghai, 1938. The city is under Japanese occupation, civil war brews in China's interior. Edwin Kuo is eight years old, obsessed with the question "Why the difference?" between China and the Greater World, the world outside his country's borders. He ventures into the Greater World by working with the British Merchant Navy through WWII. In the 1960s, trapped behind the Chinese Communists' closed-door policies, he becomes a sea captain and sails on a decrepit container ship for twenty years with his sons, caught between the desire to defect from China and the hope of re-uniting with his wife and mother, missing since the Cultural Revolution.
Edwin's aunt, Ahn Na, is a flamboyant socialite of 1940s Shanghai. She seeks diversion from her dull marriage through opium, nightclubs, and a mysterious red-haired Brit.
Little Two is Edwin's younger son. At age 25 he has not stepped foot on land since he was a small child. He knows only the container ship and the sea but gives in to a burning curiosity one night, venturing onto foreign land, into a raucous German harbor town.
In Hamburg 2015, the spirit of Ahn Na from Shanghai is now Tita Pasang, an overweight, anxiety-ridden fairy, working tirelessly to rescue her grand-niece – half-Chinese Trixi, the product of Little Two's brief land adventure – from a purposeless life of drug addiction.
If only Trixi understood what it means to be her family's last hope...
Shanghai, 1938. The city is under Japanese occupation, civil war brews in China's interior. Edwin Kuo is eight years old, obsessed with the question "Why the difference?" between China and the Greater World, the world outside his country's borders. He ventures into the Greater World by working with the British Merchant Navy through WWII. In the 1960s, trapped behind the Chinese Communists' closed-door policies, he becomes a sea captain and sails on a decrepit container ship for twenty years with his sons, caught between the desire to defect from China and the hope of re-uniting with his wife and mother, missing since the Cultural Revolution.
Edwin's aunt, Ahn Na, is a flamboyant socialite of 1940s Shanghai. She seeks diversion from her dull marriage through opium, nightclubs, and a mysterious red-haired Brit.
Little Two is Edwin's younger son. At age 25 he has not stepped foot on land since he was a small child. He knows only the container ship and the sea but gives in to a burning curiosity one night, venturing onto foreign land, into a raucous German harbor town.
In Hamburg 2015, the spirit of Ahn Na from Shanghai is now Tita Pasang, an overweight, anxiety-ridden fairy, working tirelessly to rescue her grand-niece – half-Chinese Trixi, the product of Little Two's brief land adventure – from a purposeless life of drug addiction.
If only Trixi understood what it means to be her family's last hope...
- GenresChinaHistorical Fiction
360 pages, Unknown Binding
First published July 3, 2016
1 person is currently reading
521 people want to read
About the author
Audrey Mei
2 books22 followersAudrey Mei was born in Northern California where she began playing cello at age 7. She later graduated from New England Conservatory with a BM in cello performance and from Tufts University with a BA biological psychology. In 1996 she was awarded a Fulbright Grant to study cello at Sibelius Academy in Helsinki, Finland. Although her field of study was music, the Fulbright Committee in Helsinki was deeply impressed by her writing and greeted her with the question, "When will your first book appear?" Audrey would like to thank the Committee for their support and apologizes for the 20-year delay.
Audrey moved to Berlin, Germany, in 2006 where she has been an active member of the English-language literary scene. Her poetry and prose have appeared in Gangway Literary Magazine and Glimmer Train, among others. She draws on her experiences living in the US, Europe, and Asia to write multicultural fiction, preferably with a touch of magic.
To find out more about her current works in progress, visit her blog at gritlands.blogspot.com.
Audrey moved to Berlin, Germany, in 2006 where she has been an active member of the English-language literary scene. Her poetry and prose have appeared in Gangway Literary Magazine and Glimmer Train, among others. She draws on her experiences living in the US, Europe, and Asia to write multicultural fiction, preferably with a touch of magic.
To find out more about her current works in progress, visit her blog at gritlands.blogspot.com.
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Displaying 1 - 10 of 10 reviews
April 2, 2017
You have done a fabulous job here, Audrey!
Trixi Pudong and The Greater World is a family saga revolving around four generations. It involved many important revolutions in history and got you a wonderful novel to read. World War II, the Chinese Revolution, the Cultural Revolution, the Tiananmen Square massacre and modern age are to name a few.
This book will remind you most of 'One Hundred Years of Solitude' because the theme here is Magical Realism. The author has taken time to do research about various things and that hardship could be seen in every page. I've not read many books of this genre but this book has motivated me to read more books like these. I think it was pretty impressive of the author to have encouraged the readers so.
All the stories it contains are heart-wrenching. They play with your emotions quite for a time. All these characters are engaging and developed. You don't get to see this combination everyday.
There is no uncertainty that Audrey Mei is a gifted and talented author. Many a times she took me by surprise and I was left to admire how beautiful the story went on before me. It had everything I could have asked for from a book as this.
With affluent writing style and vocabulary, detailed analysis of every situation and deep connection with the reader sets Trixi Pudong and The Greater World high on my list of recommended books. I would certainly be reading more books by Audrey Mei.
Trixi Pudong and The Greater World is a family saga revolving around four generations. It involved many important revolutions in history and got you a wonderful novel to read. World War II, the Chinese Revolution, the Cultural Revolution, the Tiananmen Square massacre and modern age are to name a few.
This book will remind you most of 'One Hundred Years of Solitude' because the theme here is Magical Realism. The author has taken time to do research about various things and that hardship could be seen in every page. I've not read many books of this genre but this book has motivated me to read more books like these. I think it was pretty impressive of the author to have encouraged the readers so.
All the stories it contains are heart-wrenching. They play with your emotions quite for a time. All these characters are engaging and developed. You don't get to see this combination everyday.
There is no uncertainty that Audrey Mei is a gifted and talented author. Many a times she took me by surprise and I was left to admire how beautiful the story went on before me. It had everything I could have asked for from a book as this.
With affluent writing style and vocabulary, detailed analysis of every situation and deep connection with the reader sets Trixi Pudong and The Greater World high on my list of recommended books. I would certainly be reading more books by Audrey Mei.
October 18, 2016
Trixi Pudong and the Greater World by Audrey Mei is a strange and wonderful novel, a family saga about four generations of a Chinese family. The story takes its characters from Shanghai in the late thirties to present day Hamburg, covering more than seventy-five years of Chinese history: World War II, the Chinese Revolution, the Cultural Revolution, the Tiananmen Square massacre, and the age of globalization.
There is magic realism here (one of the characters is a tiny fairy, after all), but it's used primarily as a framing device. Generally the storytelling is realistic, not fantastic. Much of the story is set at sea, and the details of life aboard a British merchant ship during wartime and on a decrepit container ship afterward are vividly described. Kudos to the author for the impressive amount of research she must have done to tell such a rich, detailed story.
Although the book covers four generations, the pacing is swift. Quite often, multigenerational family sagas like this are often tedious, bloated doorstoppers that take weeks or months to read, which is why I rarely read them. But this economical book is just under 300 pages. It's a fast read, and it's interesting the whole way.
As a multigenerational family saga it's necessarily episodic, broken down into five parts, each focused on a single character. The opening and closing parts are dominated by Edwin Kuo, the young boy from Shanghai who goes off to become a child sailor on a British ship. After years at sea, he eventually achieves the rank of captain. Later, he and his family are swept up by the Cultural Revolution, causing him to be separated from his wife and mother. His story is gripping and memorable.
Other parts of the book concern Ahn Na, Edwin's aunt, an opium addict and flamboyant socialite in Shanghai, Edwin's youngest son, Little Two, who joins Edwin as a crew member on his ship, and the title character, the half-Chinese Trixi Pudong, Edwin's granddaughter, who lives in poverty in Hamburg, Germany. The conclusion weaves all the stories—which are separated by both time and geography—artfully together to form a unified whole.
Author Audrey Mei, an indie writer, is enormously talented. I was awed by many evocative passages and thrilled by vividly described action scenes. There is an intricately described cricket fight, exciting submarine and kamikaze attacks at sea, an attack upon a container ship by Somali pirates, and a chaotic gun battle in a Shanghai tycoon's dining hall. There are also the sights and sounds of old Shanghai and modern Hamburg. There are brilliantly rendered dreams and terrible nightmares. There is passion, love, betrayal, and heartbreak. Through it all, the writing is vigorous and beautiful. It's a breathless page-turner.
The story moves swiftly through the arc of history. The characters face extraordinary hardship and suffering, but their family bonds give them strength to continue, unceasingly seeking freedom and a better life.
More than their search for freedom, the book is ultimately about their joy of discovery, of venturing out to experience the Greater World, which offers a realm of possibility. I look forward to other books by Audrey Mei.
There is magic realism here (one of the characters is a tiny fairy, after all), but it's used primarily as a framing device. Generally the storytelling is realistic, not fantastic. Much of the story is set at sea, and the details of life aboard a British merchant ship during wartime and on a decrepit container ship afterward are vividly described. Kudos to the author for the impressive amount of research she must have done to tell such a rich, detailed story.
Although the book covers four generations, the pacing is swift. Quite often, multigenerational family sagas like this are often tedious, bloated doorstoppers that take weeks or months to read, which is why I rarely read them. But this economical book is just under 300 pages. It's a fast read, and it's interesting the whole way.
As a multigenerational family saga it's necessarily episodic, broken down into five parts, each focused on a single character. The opening and closing parts are dominated by Edwin Kuo, the young boy from Shanghai who goes off to become a child sailor on a British ship. After years at sea, he eventually achieves the rank of captain. Later, he and his family are swept up by the Cultural Revolution, causing him to be separated from his wife and mother. His story is gripping and memorable.
Other parts of the book concern Ahn Na, Edwin's aunt, an opium addict and flamboyant socialite in Shanghai, Edwin's youngest son, Little Two, who joins Edwin as a crew member on his ship, and the title character, the half-Chinese Trixi Pudong, Edwin's granddaughter, who lives in poverty in Hamburg, Germany. The conclusion weaves all the stories—which are separated by both time and geography—artfully together to form a unified whole.
Author Audrey Mei, an indie writer, is enormously talented. I was awed by many evocative passages and thrilled by vividly described action scenes. There is an intricately described cricket fight, exciting submarine and kamikaze attacks at sea, an attack upon a container ship by Somali pirates, and a chaotic gun battle in a Shanghai tycoon's dining hall. There are also the sights and sounds of old Shanghai and modern Hamburg. There are brilliantly rendered dreams and terrible nightmares. There is passion, love, betrayal, and heartbreak. Through it all, the writing is vigorous and beautiful. It's a breathless page-turner.
The story moves swiftly through the arc of history. The characters face extraordinary hardship and suffering, but their family bonds give them strength to continue, unceasingly seeking freedom and a better life.
More than their search for freedom, the book is ultimately about their joy of discovery, of venturing out to experience the Greater World, which offers a realm of possibility. I look forward to other books by Audrey Mei.
March 20, 2017
I received a signed copy from the author as part of a Goodreads giveaway! Beautiful handwriting, by the way!
I wanted to like this book so much from the description but so many technical elements got in the way of it being a well written novel. This is a shame because the main story was interesting and compelling. I kept glancing at the covers to double check that it wasn't an ARC or readers' draft because this published copy was riddled with grammatical errors, typos and even inconsistent spellings of the same words.
I could tell from the first line of the book that the author did not speak a word of Chinese nor did she get a Chinese editor to help her with all the supposedly Chinese phrases, words and cultural references. Instead of using the standardized pinyin for Chinese words, the author butchered even the simplest words (like ni for you instead of nong) and incorrectly spelled the rest. Utilizing Chinese words in her novel was not the mistake--incorrectly doing so distracts from the plot and lowers any credibility on the subject. Any person who took maybe a few days of Chinese lessons would be able to recognize the shallow depth of Audrey's language comprehension from the telltale spellings of replacing a K in words that don't have K's (e.g. Kuo should be Guo; Hongkou should be Hangzhou, and many more instances). The letter K is very rarely used in pinyin so it's usually a sign that someone who does not speak Chinese is pronouncing/writing something. For example, China's capital is Beijing, NOT Peking (something foreigners came up with because the word Beijing was too hard to pronounce for them).
Besides all of the language atrocities, Audrey managed to get even the names of common cultural artifacts wrong. She repeatedly used the word cheongsam instead of qipao to mean the body hugging silk traditional dresses of Chinese ladies. Even if she wanted to use the Shanghainese term, it still wouldn't have been cheongsam. There was another word that she made up--pasang?! My best guess was it was the word pu sa for a guardian diety in Buddhism.
The main female characters in this book were not just bad role models but TERRIBLE excuses for human beings and wholly unlikable as well as unrelatable. Does Audrey hate the idea of a strong female or is she just incapable of writing them? Trixie's name is splashed onto the front cover but she only claims about one chapter of the entire book. What?
Glaring technical issues and character flaws aside, the author did have some insightful political commentary about the cultural revolution, the Nationalists and the reeducation system. Overall, the YA-style execution and technical errors merit this book about a 2-star, but the political commentary and interesting story line bump it up to about a 3-star rating. I've just started reading The Glass Castle and it's a complete 180 degree difference from this book. It just feels professional and reads so smoothly.
I wanted to like this book so much from the description but so many technical elements got in the way of it being a well written novel. This is a shame because the main story was interesting and compelling. I kept glancing at the covers to double check that it wasn't an ARC or readers' draft because this published copy was riddled with grammatical errors, typos and even inconsistent spellings of the same words.
I could tell from the first line of the book that the author did not speak a word of Chinese nor did she get a Chinese editor to help her with all the supposedly Chinese phrases, words and cultural references. Instead of using the standardized pinyin for Chinese words, the author butchered even the simplest words (like ni for you instead of nong) and incorrectly spelled the rest. Utilizing Chinese words in her novel was not the mistake--incorrectly doing so distracts from the plot and lowers any credibility on the subject. Any person who took maybe a few days of Chinese lessons would be able to recognize the shallow depth of Audrey's language comprehension from the telltale spellings of replacing a K in words that don't have K's (e.g. Kuo should be Guo; Hongkou should be Hangzhou, and many more instances). The letter K is very rarely used in pinyin so it's usually a sign that someone who does not speak Chinese is pronouncing/writing something. For example, China's capital is Beijing, NOT Peking (something foreigners came up with because the word Beijing was too hard to pronounce for them).
Besides all of the language atrocities, Audrey managed to get even the names of common cultural artifacts wrong. She repeatedly used the word cheongsam instead of qipao to mean the body hugging silk traditional dresses of Chinese ladies. Even if she wanted to use the Shanghainese term, it still wouldn't have been cheongsam. There was another word that she made up--pasang?! My best guess was it was the word pu sa for a guardian diety in Buddhism.
The main female characters in this book were not just bad role models but TERRIBLE excuses for human beings and wholly unlikable as well as unrelatable. Does Audrey hate the idea of a strong female or is she just incapable of writing them? Trixie's name is splashed onto the front cover but she only claims about one chapter of the entire book. What?
Glaring technical issues and character flaws aside, the author did have some insightful political commentary about the cultural revolution, the Nationalists and the reeducation system. Overall, the YA-style execution and technical errors merit this book about a 2-star, but the political commentary and interesting story line bump it up to about a 3-star rating. I've just started reading The Glass Castle and it's a complete 180 degree difference from this book. It just feels professional and reads so smoothly.
June 17, 2018
I received this book through a goodreads giveaway.
I really enjoyed the first three sections of this book. Edwin was a compelling character, and the backdrop of the Chinese cultural revolution was interesting.
That being said, Trixi was not nearly as interesting. Her chapters were not the easiest to follow, and she didn't really seem necessary to the plot. In addition, the style diverged much more toward magical realism in the later parts, which didn't seem necessary given the realism of most of the rest of the book. I actually enjoy full stories of magical realism, but it felt like magical realism for the sake of proving the author could write in the style rather than something called for by the story.
3 out of 5.
I really enjoyed the first three sections of this book. Edwin was a compelling character, and the backdrop of the Chinese cultural revolution was interesting.
That being said, Trixi was not nearly as interesting. Her chapters were not the easiest to follow, and she didn't really seem necessary to the plot. In addition, the style diverged much more toward magical realism in the later parts, which didn't seem necessary given the realism of most of the rest of the book. I actually enjoy full stories of magical realism, but it felt like magical realism for the sake of proving the author could write in the style rather than something called for by the story.
3 out of 5.
October 20, 2017
I really enjoyed the book until the last 4 chapters or so. It then contained some sexual content and language which I was not expecting or happy with. The first 7/8 of the book was very good. Was an enjoyable read.
August 29, 2016
Trixi Pudong and The Greater World is a story that travels through periods of time. The plot is centered around one family’s story .From the beginning of the novel, readers are immediately transported to 1938 China during the World War Two.Our main character is Edwin who seems to be a young boy who takes way too much for granted, doesn’t listen to his parents,and fails to realize all the sacrifices his parents made for him in order to have a better life and education.
The story is set in Shanghai which seems to be crowded by the rich and poor, on top of that there is much poverty which we see detailed through the city’s description. After his father passes, Edwin declines even further realizing that he should have listened to his father more when he was alive. Him and his mother struggle to make ends meet during turbulent times and eventually gets so bad that she has to keep renting out parts of the house to tenants. I felt so much sympathy for his mother who is trying to raise him on so little money (and by herself) and strives not to show how much she is really suffering.
Among the historical background we see the terror, horrible conditions, and tensions that arise in Shanghai due to World War Two. Readers see Edwin trying to find the “greater world” that his father always talked about, by going on a journey with sailors where he eventually gets caught in the midst of the war. I learned more about the period of Japanese occupation in China, the bombing of Nagasaki as well as the rise of the Nationalist party. Reading this book opened my eyes to a part of world history I wasn’t very familiar with. It isn’t till he becomes older that I started to sympathize with him because he starts to take things seriously and realize/learn from his past mistakes.
It was intriguing to see how the family dynamic changes over the course of the story, every character’s story was heart-wrenching, and real. The author never strays away from the atrocities of the time making the historical aspects very authentic. I enjoyed the complexities of each character and how everything comes full circle in the end. The only issue I had with the novel is that the story jumps around a lot and that there is a bit too much information packed into one book.
FTC Disclaimer: I received this book from the author in exchange for a fair and honest review.
The story is set in Shanghai which seems to be crowded by the rich and poor, on top of that there is much poverty which we see detailed through the city’s description. After his father passes, Edwin declines even further realizing that he should have listened to his father more when he was alive. Him and his mother struggle to make ends meet during turbulent times and eventually gets so bad that she has to keep renting out parts of the house to tenants. I felt so much sympathy for his mother who is trying to raise him on so little money (and by herself) and strives not to show how much she is really suffering.
Among the historical background we see the terror, horrible conditions, and tensions that arise in Shanghai due to World War Two. Readers see Edwin trying to find the “greater world” that his father always talked about, by going on a journey with sailors where he eventually gets caught in the midst of the war. I learned more about the period of Japanese occupation in China, the bombing of Nagasaki as well as the rise of the Nationalist party. Reading this book opened my eyes to a part of world history I wasn’t very familiar with. It isn’t till he becomes older that I started to sympathize with him because he starts to take things seriously and realize/learn from his past mistakes.
It was intriguing to see how the family dynamic changes over the course of the story, every character’s story was heart-wrenching, and real. The author never strays away from the atrocities of the time making the historical aspects very authentic. I enjoyed the complexities of each character and how everything comes full circle in the end. The only issue I had with the novel is that the story jumps around a lot and that there is a bit too much information packed into one book.
FTC Disclaimer: I received this book from the author in exchange for a fair and honest review.
August 13, 2016
I'm so glad to have discovered this author. My usual reading genre is women's fiction but every so often I like to stray from that, and I thoroughly enjoyed this captivating family adventure, spanning decades and oceans. I knew next to nothing about China in this time period and Mei did a fantastic job of explaining and describing in an unobtrusive way. The writing was excellent, characters engaging and stakes suitably heart-wrenching. A terrific debut and I look forward to more.
March 27, 2017
My thanks to the author for sponsoring a giveaway of her book. Receiving a free book did not affect my review. Kudos to the author for not messing with historical timelines or the actual people within them. She stayed true to the times. I liked her character development and the story line but there were times I became bogged down in characters' visions/dreams. The author was able to write engaging POV for her male and female characters. Other than the sailors introduced early in the book, she did an excellent job wrapping up loose ends. Perhaps a collection of short stories in the future?
March 27, 2017
Trixi Pudong and the Greater World is a fantastic book and it takes the reader on a wonderful journey through four generations. There were a lot of impressive events that happened and were well detailed in the book Audrey Mei wove a good tale throughout the book and the way the character are blended throughout the story is remarkable. I received the book through the Goodreads giveaway program and it was a very good story to read.
April 24, 2017
I won this book through Goodreads. An extremely entertaining adventure. Such great writing and likeable characters. Highly recommend.
Displaying 1 - 10 of 10 reviews