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by Zhang Yueran
A riveting story of a powerful Chinese family's fall from grace.
Enter the world of an elite Chinese couple: a life of luxury, wealth, and around-the-clock service, which includes their trusted nanny, Yu Ling. Slipping in and out of the shadows, meticulous in her care of their only son, she has served the family for years and knows their secrets. But little do they suspect that Yu Ling has secrets of her own.
In the pressure-cooker political environment of China, the fates of even the most powerful families can reverse overnight. When the family becomes the subject of a government investigation, their fortunes crumble, and the nanny is left to make a series of life-changing choices. How far will she go to claim her due?
Taut and enthralling, Women, Seated is a high-stakes story of power and privilege, crimes and secrets, and the elusive pursuit of personal freedom.
"A suspenseful and layered novel…Thanks to Zhang's astute storytelling, characters that first appear to be villains become more complex as the years of disappointment and fractured ambitions that have shaped them come to light. This gripping drama offers an intimate view into contemporary China's class dynamics." —Publishers Weekly
"A tight modern thriller about monied elites and corruption in mainland China…These characters may live in your head for some time due to Zhang's fine pacing and quirky scenes." —Kirkus Reviews
This information about Women, Seated was first featured
in "The BookBrowse Review" - BookBrowse's membership magazine, and in our weekly "Publishing This Week" newsletter. Publication information is for the USA, and (unless stated otherwise) represents the first print edition. The reviews are necessarily limited to those that were available to us ahead of publication. If you are the publisher or author and feel that they do not properly reflect the range of media opinion now available, send us a message with the mainstream reviews that you would like to see added.
Any "Author Information" displayed below reflects the author's biography at the time this particular book was published.
Zhang Yueran's last novel, Cocoon, has been translated into several languages. It was nominated for the Best Foreign Book Prize 2019 and won the Best Asian Novel of the Prix Transfuge 2019. It was voted one of The New Yorker's Best Books of 2022. Zhang lives in Beijing and teaches literature and creative writing at Renmin University.
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A hilarious debut novel about a wealthy but fractured Chinese immigrant family that had it all, only to lose every last cent - and about the road trip they take across America that binds them back together.
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