The Sisters Mao: A Novel

by Gavin McCrea

Overview

Against the backdrop of China’s Cultural Revolution and Europe’s sexual revolution, the fates of two families in London and Beijing become unexpectedly intertwined, in this dazzling new novel from the author of Mrs Engels.

Revolution is a Family Affair.

In London, sisters Iris and Eva, members of a radical performance collective, plan an attack on the West End theater where their mother is playing the title role in Miss Julie. Meanwhile in Beijing, Jiang Qing, Chairman Mao’s wife, rehearses a gala performance of her model ballet, The Red Detachment of Women, which she will use in order to attack her enemies in the Party.

As the preparations for these two astonishing performances unfold, Iris, Eva, and Jiang Qing are transformed into unforgettable protagonists in a single epic drama. The three ‘sisters’, although fighting very different personal battles, find themselves bound together by the passions of love, by the obsessions of power, and by the forces of history.

Exquisitely observed, relevant, and wise, The Sisters Mao shows us that the political is always personal.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781950354795
Publisher:	Scribe Publications Pty Ltd
Publication date:	01/04/2022
Pages:	560
Sales rank:	1,070,935
Product dimensions:	6.10(w) x 9.20(h) x 1.90(d)

About the Author

Gavin McCrea is the author of two critically acclaimed novels, Mrs Engels (2015) and The Sisters Mao (2021), both published by Scribe. His articles have appeared in The Paris Review, The Guardian, The Irish Times, Catapult, and LitHub.

Editorial Reviews

12/06/2021

McCrea (Mrs. Engels) returns with an ambitious if flawed dual narrative that probes the tensions between art and propaganda, family loyalty and revolutionary zeal. In 1968 London, sisters Iris and Eva Thurlow run a performance collective, the Wherehouse, in a derelict theater owned by their estranged actor mother, Alissa. Dedicated to spreading the gospel of Mao Zedong, the collective hopes to gain media attention by staging a public tribunal like those held in China. Iris decides they should target Alissa during the West End production of Strindberg’s Miss Julie in which she is starring, a plan fueled by her anger at Alissa’s maternal rather than political failings. Meanwhile, in 1991 China, Mao’s widow, Jiang Qing, recalls her political downfall from her cell in prison. Her ruin occurs in 1974, when Qing, a former actor, commandeers a governmental ballet production to ensure it is good enough for a state visit by Imelda Marcos. Her capricious use of power wins her enemies including her daughter, Li Na, who joins in denouncing her. McCrea writes insightfully about mother-daughter dynamics, the power of theater, and women’s roles in revolutionary movements, but lengthy depictions of myriad minor scenes in the Thurlow sisters’ lives sap the novel’s momentum. This is thought-provoking, though not McCrea’s best. (Jan.)

Publishers Weekly

Ambitious … McCrea writes insightfully about mother-daughter dynamics, the power of theater, and women’s roles in revolutionary movements.”
—Publishers Weekly

“Written with McCrea’s trademark confidence and virtuosity, this is a sumptuous, winning book. Its characters are not so much drawn from life (Imelda Marcos makes an entrance) as strange revenants from a turbulent dream. Its high intelligence throws light everywhere, and suggestive shade.”
—Sebastian Barry, author of A Thousand Moons

“A sweeping political saga spanning East and West. McCrea’s confident and lucid prose gives us both the personal and the political. Mesmerizing.”
—Xiaolu Guo, author of A Lover’s Discourse

“The tremors of Gavin McCrea’s prose thrillingly record what happens as a world spins off its axis, shattering public and private lives. This electrifying fiction confirms McCrea’s status among the leading novelists of his brilliant generation.”
—Frank McGuinness, author of Someone Who'll Watch Over Me

“The Sisters Mao is a spectacular novel, utterly enthralling and insightful; every voice is penetrating, dazzling. In spite of the setting, it is full of relevance for these times; it manages to be both historically authentic and thrillingly contemporary. Gavin is a writer of extraordinary talent, and I cannot think of a kind of reader who I would not recommend this novel to.”
—Sara Baume, author of Spill Simmer Falter Wither

“Gavin McCrea is a wonderful writer: bold, innovative, and fiercely intelligent, and these qualities shine from this magnificent novel. I was enthralled from the first sentence to the last.”
—Donal Ryan author of Strange Flowers

Praise for Mrs Engels:

“An unusual, wholly convincing voice.”
—Joyce Carol Oates

“[B]rought to life with exuberant force by the first-time author Gavin McCrea.”
—Carmela Ciuraru, New York Times

“Enthralling.”
—O: The Oprah Magazine

“Incisive… outlines a number of radical dislocations—in geography, nationality, class, and even love.”
—New Yorker

“Impressive… A memorable portrait of a woman looking for a cause of her own, distinct from the one made famous by her husband.”
—Sam Sacks, The Wall Street Journal

“A fine symphony.”
—The Guardian

“Outstanding, intelligent, original.”
—TLS

“Ambitious and imaginative.”
—Daily Mail

“Dazzlingly convincing.”
—The Times “Book of the Month”

“Superb.”
—The Irish Times

From the Publisher