The Wandering Daughter

Name: The Wandering Daughter
ISBN: 9787536083561

孙爱雪Flower City Publishing House · ChinaMay 2022

3.4

Word count: 214K words
Chapters: 93
ISBN: 9787536083561

Report an error Find this book

Summary

This is a work of non-fiction prose with autobiographical elements: the coming-of-age story of a rural girl. In the book, the little girl loses her mother at the age of three and grows up with her father until she marries. With deeply felt prose, the author depicts rural poverty, the natural and human environment, work and daily life, and local customs, all interwoven. Among these, the many scenes of father and daughter depending on each other are profoundly moving.

Editor's review

The Wandering Daughter is a full-length masterwork that author Sun Aixue refined over many years. With delicate, restrained brushstrokes, it sketches a portrait of women's lives against the backdrop of urban-rural transformation in contemporary China. Through the perspective of the protagonist "I," the novel tells of her mother's lifelong displacement and of "I"'s search for and confirmation of her own identity while retracing her mother's footsteps. Sun Aixue's writing has a distinct personal style: she deftly stitches the grand sweep of the era to the intimate emotions of the individual, and beneath a seemingly plain narrative runs a deep inquiry into life, homeland, and belonging. The book's value lies not only in its literary quality but in the unique cross-section it offers for observing and understanding the shifting fates of ordinary people during China's social transformation. The author's capture of detail is precise and evocative, bringing the characters' struggles and resilience vividly to the page, so that readers feel both the weight of fate and the unextinguished glimmer of humanity. For readers interested in serious literature, women's narratives, and social change, this is a work not to be missed.

Who it's for

A good fit for

Readers interested in contemporary serious literature, especially works concerned with ordinary people's fates and their relationship to their times
Readers interested in women's lived circumstances and inner growth
Readers who enjoy delicate, realistic narrative with a strong texture of everyday life
Readers who reflect on the intertwining of urban-rural change and individual fate during periods of social transformation

Not a good fit for

Readers of fast-paced online literature seeking strong plot conflict or high entertainment value
Readers who feel alienated by rural themes or by a quieter, more inward narrative style

Reading tips

Read in a relatively quiet setting to better immerse yourself in the narrative atmosphere and emotional tension the author creates
Consider the book alongside China's social changes in recent decades to understand the historical logic behind the characters' actions
Pay attention to the multi-layered treatment of the core motif of "wandering" and "searching," and appreciate its symbolic meaning beyond the specific story

About the publisher

Flower City Publishing House China · Founded in 1981

Guangdong Flower City Publishing House is a literary publisher centered on literature, with publishing directions covering modern and contemporary literature, foreign literature, literary appreciation, and applied psychology. Its available titles include classics for primary and secondary school extracurricular reading such as The Wizard of Oz, Liu Heping's Yongzheng Dynasty, works related to The Analects by Chen Puqing, and Wu Zhihong's psychology title Why the More We Love, the Lonelier We Grow (Updated Edition), as well as Kwon Yeo-sun's Lemon and the suspense and mystery series Under the Vast Sky. Its authors include Frank Baum, Liu Heping, Chen Puqing, Wu Zhihong, and Kwon Yeo-sun. The publisher balances classic reading, genre fiction, and psychological growth titles; as public information is limited, this overview is based only on the titles in the database.

版权信息
第一章孙庄
一
二
三
四
五
六
七
八
第二章家族
一
二
三
四
五
六
七
八
九
十
十一
十二
十三
十四
十五
十六
十七
第三章物质生活
一
二
三
四
五
六
七
八
九
十
十一
十二
十三
十四
十五
十六
十七
十八
十九
第四章食为天
一
二
三
四
五
六
七
八
九
第五章生命树
一
二
三
四
五
六
七
第六章屋
一
二
三
四
五
六
第七章学生生活
一
二
三
第八章 1988年的春雪
一
二
三
四
五
六
第九章艾草飞翔
一
二
三
四
五
六
七
后记

FAQ

Is this book a novel or documentary writing?

The Wandering Daughter is a novel with a strong autobiographical flavor. Sun Aixue drew on her own experiences and observations for artistic creation; the characters and stories come from life but have undergone literary refinement and fictional elaboration, placing the book in the category of literary fiction.

What is the novel's main thread and theme?

The novel follows "I" as she traces the footsteps of her mother's lifelong wandering, interweaving the life stories of two generations of women. Its core themes involve women's fate, the search for identity, the loss and rebuilding of homeland, and how individuals anchor their emotions and sense of belonging amid the currents of their times.

What other works has author Sun Aixue written?

Sun Aixue is a relatively low-profile writer with a modest number of published works. The Wandering Daughter is her major full-length representative work. Her writing focuses largely on rural life, women, and the human condition, in a plain and profound style. Readers who enjoy this book may wish to look for her other essays or shorter fiction.

Related on WeRead

Comments

Find this book

This site is an index: you start “Search all sources” in your browser, and the entries it lists all point to third-party sites; please judge their availability yourself.

About the author

孙爱雪 Author

Information about Sun Aixue is limited in publicly available sources. What can currently be confirmed is that Sun Aixue is a Chinese-language novelist with one work held in the catalog: the social novel The Wandering Daughter. Judging from the available bibliographic information, the book is classified as a social novel, suggesting that its writing addresses real life and the fate of characters within social circumstances. The words "wandering" and "daughter" in the title indicate that the story likely centers on a woman's experiences in a drifting situation, touching on common social themes such as family, survival, and identity. Because reliable records of the author's biography, nationality, and dates of birth and death are unavailable, a full account of Sun Aixue's body of work, writing style, and literary influence cannot yet be given. Based solely on the work in the catalog, Sun Aixue approaches social fiction with a realistic concern, and readers may come to understand the narrative orientation and character portrayal through the work itself.