Description

DATE OF RELEASE: 6 NOV 2025

My mother had died, but still I heard her voice... Growing up in an affluent neighbourhood in 1930s Shanghai, Loo Shu-hsin is told that it is 'no good for a girl to be smart' - and yet when rumours of the revolution reach their enclave, she is the one sent abroad for an education. In New York, she meets Chao-Pei, a Chinese engineering student, and they set out to make a life together.

By the time their daughter - Gish Jen - is born, her parents have only sporadic contact with their families, who are locked in repressive Maoist China. And in her struggle to discipline her American daughter, Loo Shu-hsin finds herself repeating the punishing refrains - 'Bad bad girl! You don't know how to talk!' - that punctured her own childhood. Bad Bad Girl is a compelling exploration of a mother's life in exile from one of America's finest stylists.


Hardback

Publication: 6 Nov 2025, Granta
ISBN: 9781803513249

Extent: 352 pages

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Bad Bad Girl by Gish Jen

    DATE OF RELEASE: 6 NOV 2025 My mother had died, but still I heard her voice... Growing up in an... Read more

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      Description

      DATE OF RELEASE: 6 NOV 2025

      My mother had died, but still I heard her voice... Growing up in an affluent neighbourhood in 1930s Shanghai, Loo Shu-hsin is told that it is 'no good for a girl to be smart' - and yet when rumours of the revolution reach their enclave, she is the one sent abroad for an education. In New York, she meets Chao-Pei, a Chinese engineering student, and they set out to make a life together.

      By the time their daughter - Gish Jen - is born, her parents have only sporadic contact with their families, who are locked in repressive Maoist China. And in her struggle to discipline her American daughter, Loo Shu-hsin finds herself repeating the punishing refrains - 'Bad bad girl! You don't know how to talk!' - that punctured her own childhood. Bad Bad Girl is a compelling exploration of a mother's life in exile from one of America's finest stylists.


      Hardback

      Publication: 6 Nov 2025, Granta
      ISBN: 9781803513249

      Extent: 352 pages

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