The Passage of Roses
Tie Ning author Jason Sommer translator Hongling Zhang translator
Format:Hardback
Publisher:ACA Publishing Limited
Published:31st Jul '26
Should be back in stock very soon
A deeply intimate portrayal of how power manifests through the female body.
During the Cultural Revolution, Mei comes of age in a once-grand courtyard dominated by her grandmother, a survivor of violence who inflicts the same kind of control upon her family that she once resisted. But the matriarch is unable to repel the political storm that comes to their home and leaves death and a traumatised young girl in its wake.
While the fervour of the Red Guards consumes 1970s Beijing, Mei comes of age in a once-grand courtyard dominated by her grandmother, a survivor of violence who inflicts the same kind of control upon her family that she once resisted. But the matriarch is unable to repel the political storm that comes to their home and leaves death and a traumatised young girl in its wake.
Years later, Mei becomes an artist, slowly committing memory to canvas. When the faultlines of the revolution are recorded as scars, can she learn to reframe the female form as a subject for liberation?
'Remarkably told with both historical breadth and its commitment to interiority, the inclusion of Mei and Yiwen in the same frame gives new life to the feminist insight that we are the product of women who come before us.' - Kaelie Giffel, Asymptote Journal
'There is no doubt about the book’s power.' - Fiction Fan
'The Passage of Roses offers a rare focus on femininity as something distorted and sabotaged by overriding ambition and opportunism.' - Jianan Qian, The Spectator
'A deeply impressive accomplishment.' - Declan O'Driscoll, The Irish Times
ISBN: 9781838906146
Dimensions: unknown
Weight: unknown