Calls Across the Pacific

Finished November 30
Calls Across the Pacific by Zoë S. Roy

This novel follows a young woman, Nina Huang, as she flees the collective she has been forced to live on in China. It follows her out of China to Hong Kong, on to the United States, and eventually to Canada. Nina's father was in the military, and she was at one point a Red Guard herself. But her father's education, at West Point, soon counted against her, and sealed her fate within China under the cultural revolution. Nina's experiences read like a memoir, with her voice reflecting her origins.
The story begins in 1969 and continues to 1978. We see Nina's life in North America and how she adjusts and finds a place for herself. We also see her longing for news of her family and friends back in China and how, as the borders relax, she is able to make her way back on more than one occasion to reconnect, learn their stories, and perhaps find a voice for those stories in the larger world.