Chen captures the complex and terrifying political environment of the time through San San’s horrifying experience trying to reach her family, as well as through the depiction of the consequences of family loyalty over party loyalty. This is a fascinating family portrait.” —Publishers Weekly (starred review)
“Historic and contemporary themes related to refugees, immigrants, and periods of social, politica,l and cultural unrest add significance and immediacy to Chen’s fast-paced novel.” —San Jose Mercury News
“Chen’s writing is fluid, and her storytelling ability is engaging. Readers are easily drawn to the characters and their perils, particularly plucky young San San…This novel is a quick and enjoyable read that should appeal to many audiences.” —Library Journal
“Chen’s brisk pacing and eye for minor details make this a compelling narrative. Short chapters with emotional weight and a tense adventure lead to a page-turning read that will appeal to readers who shy away from historical fiction.” —School Library Journal
“Chen draws a lovable protagonist in San San, and her deft use of suspense makes the novel a quick and satisfying read.” —Booklist
“This is an atmospheric novel of betrayal and ardent allegiance to ideology and political choices…With its striking title about the sacrifice (the ‘burying’) of those who are left behind, the novel succeeds in drawing a very striking portrait of this turbulent period of Chinese history.” —The Millions
“A heartbreaking and intriguing novel, Bury What We Cannot Take sheds light on a crucial point in history that you won’t find mentioned in many other books.” —Brit + Co
“Kirstin Chen’s Bury What We Cannot Take is an incredibly moving exploration of family and identity, one that's set against a backdrop that we don't often hear about but which is infinitely fascinating: Maoist China. Heartbreaking and intricate, you’ll be driven forward by Chen's prose from the very start.” —PopSugar, “20 Best Books to Read in March”
“Complex and rich, Chen’s story serves as a fascinating window into a unique period of history and the plight of one displaced family.” —Harper’s Bazaar
“[Bury What We Cannot Take] provides a rare glimpse into the little-documented history of such people during Mao’s era.” —San Francisco Chronicle
“…Epic and suspenseful, navigating universal themes of family and sacrifice while building a clear and empathetic picture of a precise historical moment in Maoist China.” —SF Gate
“A beautiful story about family, freedom, and the choices we make.” —HelloGiggles
“Chen is a precise writer, with enviable control on the page. Bury What We Cannot Take is completely immersive, and the only times I stepped out of the story were to admire the perfection of her word choice.” —KQED Arts
“Chen brilliantly captures the complex and terrifying post-Trump world we’re living in, as families torn apart becomes more of reality than ever before.” —ELLE UK
“[Bury What We Cannot Take] is an absorbing look at how women and children survive a crumbling world in which they have been indoctrinated to leave each other behind.” —The Straits Times
“Constructing a survival narrative for a child is no mean feat, and what makes Chen’s extraordinary tale believable is the depth of her historical research, as well as the expert sense of pacing she brings to the storyline…In a tradition of exile narratives that are often told from male points of view, Chen’s novel proves a distinctive and overdue contribution.” —Cha: An Asian Literary Journal
“Chen writes with a tenderness for her characters as well as a thorough knowledge of the environment of that time…Her commitment to thorough historical research and patient detail to her characters has resulted in a novel as enjoyable as it is sobering.” —Fathom
“I just don’t understand how a book can be this good and this beautiful and this heart-wrenching all at once, and if you only read one of the books on this list: make sure it’s this one.” —Book Riot
“Bury What We Cannot Take explores what it takes to survive in a world gone mad—and what is lost when we do. Kirstin Chen has written both an engrossing historical drama and a nuanced exploration of how far the bonds of familial love can stretch.” —Celeste Ng, New York Times bestselling author of Everything I Never Told You and Little Fires Everywhere
“This story will sweep you away. An utterly beautiful, entirely engrossing family saga. Chen writes betrayal and love with wisdom and nuance, attuned always to the complexities—personal, historical, cultural—of the human heart. Bury What We Cannot Take is an instant classic.” —Claire Vaye Watkins, author of Gold Fame Citrus and Battleborn
“In Maoist China, the family at the center of this propulsive, haunting story is fractured by the dazzlingly complex fallout of a single irrevocable act. This beautifully plotted, suspenseful, and deeply compassionate novel shows Kirstin Chen, whose work I’ve long admired, at her absolute finest. Bury What We Cannot Take is a vital book.” —Laura van den Berg, author of Find Me
“Bury What We Cannot Take fulfills the promise of Kirstin Chen’s debut. San San’s family flee Drum Wave Islet, leaving her behind. An epic story follows that explores gender roles, oppressive ideologies, sacrifice, and what it means to be free. All through the microcosm of one family. This is a book set in the past, on the other side of the world, that is more than relevant in today’s America. Chen delivers a page-turner that holds a historical mirror up to our fuzzy, complicit world.” —Matthew Salesses, author of The Hundred-Year Flood
07/01/2018
When San San's 12-year-old brother Ah Liam, who is committed to the Communist Party, tells the authorities that he saw his grandmother smashing a portrait of Chairman Mao, he, his mother, and his grandmother must flee China for Hong Kong, leaving San San behind. The once pampered nine-year-old attempts to survive on the streets and avoid capture by the authorities, all while trying to rejoin her family. Meanwhile, everyone in her family has their own story. San San's father, who crossed the border alone to Hong Kong six years earlier, adjusts to his family's arrival. His precarious finances and pregnant mistress complicate their reunion. San San's mother desperately tries one outrageous plan after another to rescue San San, while Ah Liam clings to his revolutionary ideals. With most of the focus on San San and her mother, the other plot lines, especially that of Ah Liam, don't sufficiently develop, leaving their resolutions unearned, and some key action is glossed over. However, Chen's brisk pacing and eye for minor details make this a compelling narrative. Short chapters with emotional weight and a tense adventure lead to a page-turning read that will appeal to readers who shy away from historical fiction. VERDICT Best suited for public libraries—an additional purchase for most school collections.—Jennifer Rothschild, Arlington County Public Libraries, VA
★ 05/07/2018
Chen opens a window into 1950s Maoist China in her evocative second novel (following Soy Sauce for Beginners), which features three generations of the Ong family. Nine-year-old San San and her older brother, Ah Liam, live in a household run by their mother and grandmother on Drum Wave Islet, a small island off the coast of mainland China. Their father, Ah Zhai, has worked in Hong Kong for years, keeping a mistress, supporting his family from afar, and hiding his financial woes. When he sees the writing on the wall about the Communist crackdown on capitalism and anything Western, he devises a ruse to get his bourgeois family to Hong Kong. Meanwhile, his son, vying for a place in the Communist Youth League on Drum Wave Islet, decides to up his chances for acceptance by reporting his grandmother’s destruction of Chairman Mao’s portrait. Chaos ensues; the family has to leave San San behind with the servants, hoping to bring her to Hong Kong later. This leads to a new set of complications. Chen captures the complex and terrifying political environment of the time through San San’s horrifying experience trying to reach her family, as well as through the depiction of the consequences of family loyalty over party loyalty. This is a fascinating family portrait. (Mar.)
06/15/2018
For the youngest member of a once-envied family, injustice begins at home in Chen's (Soy Sauce for Beginners) vivid odyssey of 1950s China. Already "problematic" (tainted by capitalist forebears), the Ong clan slides further into Communist Party disfavor after their matriarch destroys a portrait of Chairman Mao and grandson Ah Liam betrays her. Their exit strategy—obtaining visas for a "last visit" to the children's father in Hong Kong—derails momentarily when officials demand that one child remain behind but soon resolves: Ah Liam's mother unwaveringly designates his nine-year-old sister San San. Abandoned to the tender mercies of disloyal servants and certain of punishment for her family's escape, the tenacious child launches her own extrication. Emily Woo Zeller portrays with actorly aplomb the widely varying characters San San encounters on her adventures. VERDICT The story's hurried conclusion and uneven characterization will be forgiven by historical fiction fans absorbed by harrowing vignettes of Mao's regime, book groups keen to discuss the chilling implications of the story's title, and general readers seeking an intriguing page-turner. Recommended for public libraries. ["A quick and enjoyable read that should appeal to many audiences": LJ 2/1/18 review of the Little A hc.]—Linda Sappenfield, Round Rock P.L., TX
Narrator Emily Woo Zeller draws listeners into young San San's confusion about life in new China. During the Cultural Revolution she questions everyone's disdain for all things foreign. Zeller infuses this historical family drama with a flexible range that embraces male and female characters, as well as capturing the nuances of difference between adults and children. She transitions effortlessly between San San and her brother, Ah Liam, taking the listener on the family’s painful journey of dislocation and betrayal. Zeller embodies this story of love and loss with a heartfelt undertone that highlights the loss of innocence when Ah Liam turns informer on his family. We persist, listening in dread, as with deep feeling, Zeller reveals the horrific consequences of Ah Liam's actions. M.R. © AudioFile 2018, Portland, Maine
2017-12-24
A once-wealthy family living in 1950s Maoist China attempts to escape to Hong Kong.It's the summer of 1957, and 12-year-old Ah Liam Ong is a devoted follower of Chairman Mao and China's Communist Party. When his severe teacher, Comrade Ang, offers him the opportunity to apply for the Party's Youth League, Ah Liam rashly submits a story of his once-wealthy grandmother smashing a portrait of the Chairman. The Party's subsequent investigation couldn't have come at a worse time. Ah Liam's father, Ah Zhai, who lives in Hong Kong, has faked a mortal illness to get his family permits to travel—and escape—to Hong Kong. As a result of the increased scrutiny on the family, however, Ah Zhai's wife, Seok Koon, can only obtain permits for herself, her mother-in-law, and one child. Suddenly, San San, at 9 the youngest member of the family, has been left behind on Drum Wave Islet while her family sails for Hong Kong. After trying to escape with trusted neighbors, San San finds herself on the run from the authorities and confronted with the grim realities of Communist China. Meanwhile, Seok Koon desperately tries to rescue her daughter, all while struggling with her relationship with her estranged husband, and Ah Liam falls in with like-minded leftist students at his new school. This sophomore effort from Chen, a native of Singapore, toggles among the members of the Ong family over the course of their journeys. The novel's setting is broad and rich as a result of this polyphonous approach, and Chen is clearly fascinated by the historical period. But the sheer number of characters and subplots can also make the novel feel strained and disjointed. The characters are not given equal page time, and as a result, those who appear less often lack development and complexity. San San's story is particularly action-packed and by far the most gripping. Despite the benefits of polyphonic storytelling, it's hard not to think that a novel focused solely on San San might have been more compelling.A modestly engaging, well-researched historical novel of Communist China that fails to fulfill its potential.
