The new memoir from prizewinning writer and filmmaker Xiaolu Guo playful, provocative and original, its her deeply personal take on striving for a life of her ownWhen 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 LEVYThe world can seem strange and lonely when you step away from your family and everything you have tried to call your own. Yet beauty may also appear. In the autumn of 2019 Xiaolu travelled to New York to take up her position as a visiting professor for a year, leaving her child and partner behind in London. The encounter with American culture and people threatens her sense of identity and throws her into a crisis of meaning, desire, obligation and selfhood.This is a memoir about separation by continents, by language, and from people. Its about being an outsider and the desperate longing to connect. Xiaolu uses her exploration of language (one of the meanings of the word radical is the graphic component, or root, of Chinese characters), and her own life, to create this unique text. At once a memoir, a dictionary, and an ardent love letter, it is an expression of her fascination with Western culture and her nostalgia for Eastern landscapes, and an attempt to describe the space in between. An archive of an artists search for creative freedom, it is above all else an intimate account of her efforts to carve out a life of her own.Radical in angle of...

Binding: Paperback;352 pages; Publisher: Vintage Publishing; Classification: BM; Weight: 402 g; Dimensions: 196 x 129 x 25

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