Books › Love in a fallen city
Love in a fallen city
First published 2006 · 321 pages
A stark, lyrical exploration of longing and the treacherous, shifting dynamics of family and sexual politics.
What it feels like
Reading this collection feels like navigating a beautiful but treacherous landscape. The stories unfold at a steady, deliberate pace, immersing the reader in an atmosphere thick with romantic longing and psychological ambiguity. The prose itself is a striking balance of contrasts, marrying a sharp, almost stark contemporary awareness of sexual politics with a deep, resonant lyricism that echoes classical traditions. As you move from tale to tale, the emotional journey is one of navigating the endlessly shifting and often dangerous shoals of family life, where love is inextricably linked with tension and betrayal. It is a deeply observant, unsentimental experience that will captivate readers who crave psychologically complex short fiction and masterful, evocative writing that lays bare the complexities of human connection.
- Mood
- melancholic
- ambiguous
- tense
- yearning
- Tone
- stark
- lyrical
- observant
- unsentimental
- Pace
- steady
- Themes
- romantic longing · family treachery · sexual politics · psychological ambiguity
- The writing
- Combines a sharp, contemporary sensibility with a lyricism echoing classical Chinese literature.
- The arc
- Moves through the treacherous and ambiguous landscapes of love and family, culminating in a stark vision of human connection.
- Who it's for
- Readers who appreciate psychologically complex, lyrical short fiction that explores the darker, shifting dynamics of family and romance.
Content notes
- family dysfunction
- emotional betrayal
About the book
"Eileen Chang is one of the great writers of twentieth-century China. At the heart of Chang's achievement is her short fiction - tales of love, longing, and the shifting and endlessly treacherous shoals of family life. Written when Chang was still in her twenties, these stories combine a contemporary sensibility, keenly alert to sexual politics and psychological ambiguity, with a lyricism that echoes the classics of Chinese literature. Love in a Fallen City, the first collection in English of this body of work, introduces American readers to the stark vision of a modern master."--BOOK JACKET
Description from Open Library.
Books like Love in a fallen city
See why they match
Lust, CautionEileen ChangA lush, politically charged thriller where wartime espionage collides with the erotic pulse of a doomed love affair.
What We Talk About When We Talk About LoveRaymond CarverA masterclass in minimalism that finds devastating heartbreak in the quiet, gin-soaked corners of ordinary American lives.
Invisible PlanetsKen LiuA kaleidoscopic journey through surreal futures and alternate realities that holds a mirror up to the complexities of modern society.
Collected FictionsJorge Luis BorgesA dizzying descent into a library of infinite mirrors, where reality, time, and identity constantly shift and dissolve.
Diary of a MurdererYoung-ha KimAn electric, boundary-pushing collection that balances on the razor's edge between good and evil, truth and fractured memory.
Peony in LoveLisa SeeA lush, haunting exploration of lovesickness and the afterlife, where passion defies the boundaries of mortality.