When it comes to spinning light and shadow on the complexities of living, loving and language, Xiaolu Guo is one of the most valuable writers in the world * DEBORAH LEVY * An etymological voyage that lives up to its title: radical in angle of attack, smart and brave. Making the urban condition of restlessness and pain into poetry * IAIN SINCLAIR, author of The Gold Machine * A wild, passionate, gorgeous book, wandering the borders of language and desire; walking cities and remembering the ghosts of past landscapes. Xiaolu Guo's books always open up new connections and curiosities for me. She is certainly among my favourite contemporary writers * AYSEGUL SAVAS, author of White on White * Xiaolu Guo is a writer like no other, and this is a memoir like no other * RANA MITTER, Professor of the History and Politics of Modern China, University of Oxford * Xiaolu Guo is a writer like no other, and this is a memoir like no other. Organised through a series of words that cut across languages, the book shows the divides and the connections that define a life lived between China, Europe and America, all explained with wit, lightness of touch and the occasional pinch of heartbreak * RANA MITTER * Guo's writing is tender and raw, and she creates a passionate, intimate vocabulary, exploring the complexity of belonging, nostalgia, and love * Skinny * [ A] marvellous new memoir... [ an] intellectually rich and stimulating journey * Guardian * A collection of poetic thoughts of what it means to belong... she [ Guo] writes beautifully * Spectator * This book is so radically alive to everything that I could have sworn I felt it pulsating in my hands. -- Devorah Baum More than a memoir, it is as much about the skilful exploration of language as it is about a woman stepping outside her world, taking risks in a new territory * Observer, *Books of the Year* *
