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    The Flowers of War
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    The Flowers of War
    Unavailable
    The Flowers of War
    Audiobook5 hours

    The Flowers of War

    Written by Geling Yan

    Narrated by Samantha Quan

    4/5

    ()

    Currently unavailable

    Currently unavailable

    About this audiobook

    The powerful Chinese novel about love and war on which Zhang Yimou (Raise the Red Lantern; Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon) has based his latest film starring Christian Bale.
     
    This moving short novel is based on true events that took place during the Nanjing Massacre in 1937 when the Japanese invaded the Chinese city, slaughtering not only soldiers but raping and murdering the civilian population as well. It tells the story of an American missionary who, for a few terrifying days, finds himself sheltering a group of schoolgirls, prostitutes and wounded Chinese soldiers in the compound of his church.
     
    American priest Father Engelmann is one of the small group of Westerners who have remained in Nanjing, despite the approach of the Japanese. America is not yet in the war and so his church compound is supposedly neutral territory. However, his confidence in his ability to look after the Chinese schoolgirls left in his care is shaken when thirteen prostitutes from the floating brothel on the nearby Yangtze River climb over the compound wall and demand to be hidden. The situation becomes even more intense when some wounded Chinese soldiers appear. Meanwhile Engelmann is becoming increasingly aware of the barbaric behaviour of the Japanese outside the compound walls. It is only a matter of time before they knock on the door and find the people he is protecting.
     
    Like Irène Némirovsky's Suite Française, this poignant audiobook looks at the effect upon individuals of large-scale war and tragedy. The characters are beautifully observed. From the naive schoolgirls, the brazen prostitutes and the frightened soldiers to the slightly priggish priest and his resentful Chinese entourage. As the Japanese circle ever closer, the barriers of hatred and prejudice that separate the characters dissolve, and they perform unexpected and moving acts of heroism. Geling Yan, an important Chinese writer, reveals herself to be a master of detail and emotion in this novel. She recreates history as if it is unfolding before our eyes, and writes characters that are so engaging and so rich that we believe in them entirely. This is a novel full of humanity -- at its worst and at its best -- and a fascinating insight into 1930s China.
    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherPenguin Random House Audio
    Release dateFeb 7, 2012
    ISBN9780449013472
    Unavailable
    The Flowers of War
    Author

    Geling Yan

    Yan Geling is one of the most acclaimed contemporary novelists and screenwriters writing in the Chinese language today. Born in Shanghai, she served with the People's Liberation Army (PLA), starting at age twelve as a dancer in an entertainment troupe. She is the author of numerous novels, short stories, novellas, essays, and scripts. Yan is fluent in English and her best-known novels in the West are The Banquet Bug (published in the UK as The Uninvited) and The Lost Daughter of Happiness (translated by Cathy Silber), as well as the novella and short story collection White Snake and Other Stories (translated by Lawrence A. Walker). She lives in Berlin, Germany. 

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    Reviews for The Flowers of War

    4/5

    22 ratings5 reviews

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    • 5/5
      This is the third novel I've read by this hugely imaginative author. It's full of the same sorts of quirks and diversions as her other works, but is also the most emotionally satisfying. The story of schoolgirls, prostitutes, soldiers and priests taking refuge in a church during the brutal rape of Nanjing in 1937, it offers a suspense-filled, insightful look into what feels like very believable bickering and competition among these mismatched cohabitators, united by fear and the will to survive.I confess that I saw the movie first, which bears only superficial resemblance to the novel, even though the author co-wrote the screenplay. While the movie is in many ways a better actual story than the novel, the characters in the book were given more depth. I also preferred the priests as saviors in the book, over the improbably handsome, rakish foreign mortician in the movie (though Christian Bale played the role superbly). Plus the book has the added attraction of an epilogue, which tells the fates of several characters.If you liked the movie, read this short book. If you liked the book, see the movie. Both are excellent.
    • 4/5
      A little disappointing.This was a book that improved a bit as the story progressed - initially I couldn't relax with the dialogue or the points of view of the protaganists, which felt disjointed. I wondered if it was a translation problem, but the translator is very experienced in this field, so I concluded that it must be cultural.As I relaxed into the style, I became more involved with the schoolgirls in their innocence, the brazen prostitutes and the injured soldiers, all thrown together under the care of the church and Father Engelmann. The Father, with the help of his Deacon, Fabio Adornato, do their best to help everyone but they were in this over their heads, as water and food quickly ran out.There is mention of the city burning all around but I didn't feel the sense of urgency and panic that this must surely have evoked. There is the smell of burning, but where is the fear that the flames could reach and envelop the church, its buildings and survivors?The story takes place during the Massacre of Nanking in 1937 and the massacre itself is well described as 5,000 Chinese soldiers unfortunately put their faith in the Japanese to respect their rights as prisoners of war.It is only a short book with 250 widely spaced pages and I learnt about an historical event that I had not been previously aware of, but I was disappointed that there seemed to be less feeling than I would have expected for a catastrophe of this nature.Worth a read but not highly recommended.
    • 4/5
      A more personal yet no less powerful take on the Nanking invasion by the Chinese. School girls, prostitutes, injured Chinese soldiers all come under the protection of an American priest in a church that is supposed to be off limits because of it's American status. The book takes place almost solely within this church and visits by the priest to what is supposed to be the safety zone. The way people change when confronted with adversity, among untold violence, are avidly portrayed in this novel. Sacrifices are made, others learn gratitude and by the end of this book I literally had goosebumps. The epilogue ties it all together and we learn where these people are 9 years later and how some of them had changed. The translation made the book seem distant in the first half or so, but by the end it was a book that delivered a big impact. Historical fiction readers find this book informative. ARC provided by Net Galley.
    • 4/5
      The Flowers of War is a story of a group of unlikely people thrown together in a crisis. It is set in a mission compound in Nanking, China in 1937. The Japanese have invaded. Sixteen girls at the mission school who have been unable to leave the city to go somewhere safer have taken refuge in the building, with Father Engelmann, an elderly priest, and his assistant, Fabio, who has relatives in America but who chose as a child to stay in China when his mum died. Engelmann still hopes to find some way of getting his charges to safety, but everything in the occupied city is likely to be hard fought for.Engelmann and Fabio are dismayed to find themselves taking on more unwanted guests - a group of prostitutes.This sets the stage for an odd mixture of eccentric social comedy against the backdrop of a very scary, violent conflict. Can Engelmann stop his charges being attacked and probably raped? And can he prevent their moral contamination by the prostitutes.The story is told from the viewpoint of a number of different characters, starting with a schoolgirl having her first period, but Fabio is perhaps the most intriguing and fully drawn character, a young man who knows he is not Chinese but has never known any other country.I was really caught up in the dilemmas, scared of the danger they were in but amused by the absurdities of the situation.Reviewed for Amazon Vine January 2012
    • 5/5
      This novel, the February pick for the War & Literature Read-Along, is set in 1937-38 Nanking, China during the beginning of the occupation by the Imperial Japanese army at the start of the second Sino-Japanese war. The period beginning mid-December 1937 has become known as “the Rape of Nanking“, for what seems to be very good reason.The priest at a church ‘compound’ has had thrust upon him the care of twelve young students from an all-girls school, whose parents for various reasons, have not been able to collect them. Shortly after the arrival of the schoolgirls, several prostitutes from a neighbouring brothel scale the compound walls, and a small group of wounded Chinese soldiers take refuge there as well, setting the scene for the novel’s tragic climax.The prose in this book is simple and straight-forward; so simple, in fact, that at times I thought perhaps this was a Young Adult book. But on consideration, I believe that it is the effect of the original Chinese language, and the translation.Even though it may not appear to be at first, Flowers of War is an extremely powerful book about the horrors of war and the sacrifices of ordinary men and women. Warning: The last chapter is very graphic, although not gratuitously so, and describes savagery you will not soon forget. 4½ starsRead this if: you want to find out about the war between China & Japan that preceded WWII, and is now forgotten by the majority of North Americans.