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A Map for the Missing by Belinda Huijuan Tang- 4* - My Review

As the story opens, Tang Yitian, living in the US, receives a call from his mother, in China, to tell him that his father is missing. Yitian returns to China to search for his father. The narrative flashes back to tell the story of Yitian’s coming-of-age. He and a local girl, Tian Hanwen, dream of going to college. Both of their lives are changed by the Cultural Revolution. The storyline moves between his early days, his pursuit of an education (which we know from the outset he eventually achieved), and his past – the story of his relationship with Hanwen, his family’s tragedy, and the factors that led to his father’s disappearance. He encounters Hanwen again, and she gets involved in the search for his father. I became fully engrossed in the story. It is well crafted and treats the movements in time with skill. Themes include guilt, grief, and forgiveness. It zooms in on a single family and zooms out to provide a more extensive understanding of the ongoing impact of China’s Cultural Revolution. It is an impressive debut.

PBT July BWF extra T and tagged "debut" x10:
https://www.goodreads.com/work/shelve...