Two Trees Make a Forest: On Memory, Migration and Taiwan - Couverture rigide

Lee, Jessica J.

Couverture rigide

ISBN 10 : 0349011060 ISBN 13 : 9780349011066

Editeur : Virago, 2019

Synopsis

I have learned many words for 'island': isle, atoll, eyot, islet, or skerry. They exist in archipelagos or alone, and always, by definition, I have understood them by their relation to water. But the Chinese word for island knows nothing of water. For a civilisation grown inland from the sea, the vastness of mountains was a better analogue: (dao, 'island') built from the relationship between earth and sky.

Between tectonic plates and conflicting cultures, Taiwan is an island of extremes: high mountains, exposed flatlands, thick forests. After unearthing a hidden memoir of her grandfather's life, written on the cusp of his total memory loss, Jessica J Lee hunts his story, in parallel with exploring Taiwan, hoping to understand the quakes that brought her family from China, to Taiwan and Canada, and the ways in which our human stories are interlaced with geographical forces. Part-nature writing, part-biography, Two Trees Make a Forest traces the natural and human stories that shaped an island and a family.

A propos du livre

À propos de l?auteur

Jessica J. Lee is a British-Canadian-Taiwanese author, environmental historian, and winner of the RBC Taylor Prize Emerging Author Award. She received a doctorate in environmental history and aesthetics in 2016, and her first book, Turning, was published in 2017. Jessica is the founding editor of The Willowherb Review. She lives in Berlin.

À propos de la quatrième de couverture

`A subtle, powerful exploration of the relationship between people and place ... a luminous evocation ' - Melissa Harrison


`Takes a twisting path through mountain passes, over tree roots, by spoonbilled birds and into a family's past. Lee asks the reader to wonder, what makes a homeland? Is it language, family, landscape?' - Rowan Hisayo Buchanan


`Both clear-eyed and tender hearted; Lee is a poetic talent keenly attentive to the mysterious and sublime' Sharlene Teo

`Its short, shining sections tilt yearningly towards one another; in form as well as content, this is a beautiful book about the distance between people and between places, the means of their bridging - and finding a home in language' - Robert Macfarlane

À propos de la deuxième de couverture

Taiwanis an island of extremes: towering mountains, lush forests and domesticatedflatlands. Between shifting tectonic plates and a history rife withtension, the geographical and political landscape is ever evolving. Afterunearthing a hidden memoir of her grandfather's life, Jessica J. Lee seeks topiece together the fragments of her family's history as they moved from Chinato Taiwan, and then on to Canada. But as she navigates the forests andmountains of Taiwan, Lee finds herself having to traverse fissures in language,memory, and history, to find the stories her family left behind.

Part-nature writing, part-biography, Two Trees Make a Forest tracesthe natural and human stories that shaped an island and a family.

`A beautiful, fully-realised tribute to a family and a brave, diligent search for understanding in the mist 'Amy Liptrot

Détails de l'édition

• Éditeur: Virago
• Date d'édition: 2019
• Langue: anglais
• ISBN 10: 0349011060
• ISBN 13: 9780349011066
• Reliure: Relié
• Nombre de pages: 256
• Coordonnées du fabricant: non disponible
• Personne responsable: non disponible