A poignant and insightful anthology of short fiction explores the lives and feelings of families torn apart by conflict between generations, cultures, and values in which characters desperately struggle to reconcile family loyalty with individual dreams and desires, in such works as "House," "Dispatch," and "A Map of the City." A first collection. Reader's Guide included. Reprint. 12,000 first printing.

Simple Recipes: Stories

Literature & Fiction

Thien, Madeleine

United States

Back Bay Books

Presents an anthology of short fiction which explores the lives and feelings of families torn apart by conflict between generations, cultures, and values in which characters struggle to reconcile family loyalty.

Little,Brown

Madeleine Thien's stunning debut novel hauntingly retells a crucial moment in history, through two unforgettable love stories. Gail Lim, a producer of radio documentaries, is haunted by the mystery of her father's Asian past. As a child, Gail's father, Matthew Lim, lived in a Malaysian village occupied by the Japanese. He and his beloved Ani wandered the jungle fringe under the terrifying shadow of war. The war shattered their families, splitting the two apart until a brief reunion years later. Matthew's profound connection to Ani and the life-changing secrets they shared cast a shadow that, later still, Matthew's wife, Clara, desperately sought to understand. Gail's journey to unravel the mystery of her parents' lives takes her to Amsterdam, where she unearths more about this mysterious other woman. But as Gail approaches the truth, Ani's story will bring Gail face-to-face, with the untold mysteries of her own life. Vivid, poignant, and written in understated yet powerful prose, CERTAINTY is a novel about the legacies of loss, the dislocations of war, and the timeless redemption afforded by love.

Certainty: A Novel

Contemporary

Little. Brown and Company

Winner of the 2016 Scotiabank Giller Prize and the Governor General's Literary Award for Fiction, shortlisted for the Man Booker Prize, and longlisted for the 2017 Andrew Carnegie Medal for Excellence in Fiction, this extraordinary novel tells the story of three musicians in China before, during and after the Tiananmen Square protests of 1989. Madeleine Thien's new novel is breathtaking in scope and ambition even as it is hauntingly intimate. With the ease and skill of a master storyteller, Thien takes us inside an extended family in China, showing us the lives of two successive generations--those who lived through Mao's Cultural Revolution in the mid-twentieth century; and the children of the survivors, who became the students protesting in Tiananmen Square in 1989, in one of the most important political moments of the past century. With exquisite writing sharpened by a surprising vein of wit and sly humour, Thien has crafted unforgettable characters who are by turns flinty and headstrong, dreamy and tender, foolish and wise. At the centre of this epic tale, as capacious and mysterious as life itself, are enigmatic Sparrow, a genius composer who wishes desperately to create music yet can find truth only in silence; his mother and aunt, Big Mother Knife and Swirl, survivors with captivating singing voices and an unbreakable bond; Sparrow's ethereal cousin Zhuli, daughter of Swirl and storyteller Wen the Dreamer, who as a child witnesses the denunciation of her parents and as a young woman becomes the target of denunciations herself; and headstrong, talented Kai, best friend of Sparrow and Zhuli, and a determinedly successful musician who is a virtuoso at masking his true self until the day he can hide no longer. Here, too, is Kai's daughter, the ever-questioning mathematician Marie, who pieces together the tale of her fractured family in present-day Vancouver, seeking a fragile meaning in the layers of their collective story. With maturity and sophistication, humour and beauty, a huge heart and impressive understanding, Thien has crafted a novel that is at once beautifully intimate and grandly political, rooted in the details of daily life inside China, yet transcendent in its universality.

Do Not Say We Have Nothing

Literary

Knopf Canada

Vintage Canada

From the award-winning author of Dogs at the Perimeter, a stunning debut now repackaged as a Vintage Canada trade paperback. Longing, familiarity, and hope fill the pages of this new edition of Madeleine Thien's collection of stories, which explore the subtle dimensions of personal connections and the bonds that are fraught with tension--deftly weaving in conflicts between generations and cultures. With a masterful insight into the relationships that define us, Thien creates a cast of true-to-life characters who are all looking for ways to make amends and come to terms with the events that have shaped their lives: whether a woman searching her past for the moment when her family lost faith in itself, two sisters who keep watch outside their former home in the hope that their long-absent mother will return, a wife who helps her husband grieve for the woman he has loved since childhood, or a daughter who reflects on the simple ritual she shared with her father and when her unconditional love for him was called into question. Compassionate and revealing, delicate and wise, these stories chart the uneven progress of love and expose the heartbreaking truths at the core of our closest bonds.

Simple Recipes

Certainty

In her stunning debut novel about a woman's journey to unravel the mystery of her parents' lives, Madeleine Thien proves herself a writer of vision, maturity, and style.Certainty follows Gail Lim, a producer of radio documentaries in Vancouver, as she works to uncover the history of her parents' relationship and struggles to come to terms with the events that brought them together. Gail's search for the truth leads her to Amsterdam where she meets a war photographer named Sipke, who tells her the story of a woman named Ani--and in so doing, reveals valuable information that not only sheds further light on Gail's parents, but also brings Gail face to face with the complications in her own life and closer to unraveling the questions that have gripped her imagination.     With a voice at once vivid and poignant, Thien crafts a story that explores the legacies of loss, the dislocations of war, and the redemptive qualities of love.

In this, her second novel after the award-winning Certainty, Madeleine Thien continues to demonstrate her astonishing gifts as a storyteller. Set in Cambodia during the regime of the Khmer Rouge and in present-day Montreal, Dogs at the Perimeter tells the story of Janie, who as a child experiences the terrible violence carried out by the Khmer Rouge and loses everything she holds dear. Three decades later, Janie has relocated to Montreal, although the scars of her past remain visible. After abandoning her husband and son, Janie takes refuge in the home of her friend, the scientist Hiroji Matsui. Janie and Hiroji find solace in their shared grief and pain--until Hiroji's disappearance opens old wounds, and Janie finds that she must struggle to find grace in a world overshadowed by the sorrows of her past. Beautifully realized, deeply affecting, Dogs at the Perimeter evokes the injustice of tyranny through the eyes of a young girl and draws a remarkable map of the mind's battle with memory, loss, and the horrors of war. It confirms Madeleine Thien as one of the most gifted and powerful novelists writing today.

Dogs at the Perimeter

The second novel by the Man Booker Prize shortlisted author Madeleine Thien is "beautiful, deeply moving, [and] addresses universal questions" (Independent).
Set in Cambodia during the regime of the-Khmer Rouge and in present day Montreal, Dogs at the Perimeter tells the story of Janie, who as a child experiences the terrible violence carried out by the Khmer Rouge and loses everything she holds dear. Three decades later, Janie has relocated to Montreal, although the scars of her past remain visible. After abandoning her husband and son and taking refuge in the home of her friend, the scientist Hiroji Matsui, Janie and Hiroji find solace in their shared grief and pain―until Hiroji’s disappearance opens old wounds and Janie finds that she must struggle to find grace in a world overshadowed by the sorrows of her past.
Beautifully realized, deeply affecting, Dogs at the Perimeter evokes the injustice of tyranny through the eyes of a young girl and draws a remarkable map of the mind’s battle with memory, loss, and the horrors of war. It confirms Madeleine Thien as one of the most gifted and powerful novelists writing today.
Finalist for the International Literature Prize and the Hugh MacLennan Prize for Fiction A Canada Reads Top Forty Book A Globe and Mail Best Book

Dogs at the Perimeter: A Novel

W.W.Norton&Company

Winner of the Scotiabank Giller Prize and the Governor General's Literary Award // Finalist for the Man Booker Prize and the Baileys Women's Prize for Fiction "A powerfully expansive novel…Thien writes with the mastery of a conductor." ―New York Times Book Review
“In a single year, my father left us twice. The first time, to end his marriage, and the second, when he took his own life. I was ten years old.”
Master storyteller Madeleine Thien takes us inside an extended family in China, showing us the lives of two successive generations―those who lived through Mao’s Cultural Revolution and their children, who became the students protesting in Tiananmen Square. At the center of this epic story are two young women, Marie and Ai-Ming. Through their relationship Marie strives to piece together the tale of her fractured family in present-day Vancouver, seeking answers in the fragile layers of their collective story. Her quest will unveil how Kai, her enigmatic father, a talented pianist, and Ai-Ming’s father, the shy and brilliant composer, Sparrow, along with the violin prodigy Zhuli were forced to reimagine their artistic and private selves during China’s political campaigns and how their fates reverberate through the years with lasting consequences.
With maturity and sophistication, humor and beauty, Thien has crafted a novel that is at once intimate and grandly political, rooted in the details of life inside China yet transcendent in its universality.

Do Not Say We Have Nothing: A Novel

British & Irish

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Books by Thien, Madeleine

See the best price to sell, buy, or rent books by Thien, Madeleine. BookScouter helps to compare book prices from 25+ online bookstores and 30+ buyback vendors with a single search.

Simple Recipes: Stories

Simple Recipes: Stories

Certainty: A Novel

Do Not Say We Have Nothing

Do Not Say We Have Nothing

Simple Recipes

Certainty

Dogs at the Perimeter

Dogs at the Perimeter: A Novel

Do Not Say We Have Nothing: A Novel