The Gilded Age 

 

Now available in Chinese

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On those sunlit afternoons, the wind would drift in from distant shores, carrying the scent of the sea. With it came memories long buried and dreams long set aside, slowly emerging from the mist of recollection into vivid clarity. Out of these moments grew these cyclical  coming-of-age stories.

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Winner of the 2002 UNITAS New Fiction Writer’s Award, Yueyue Wenren writes in an intimate, unhurried voice, her supple prose revealing deep currents of emotion beneath a surface of restraint. She traces the tender vulnerabilities of youth, the exhilaration of first love, the fierce idealism of young hearts eager to remake the world, and, in the aftermath of September 11, humanity’s longing for—and uncertainty about—the promise of an age of peace and prosperity. Together, these stories form a meditation on memory, longing, and the fragile hope for a more peaceful world.

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A quiet melancholy lingers throughout the collection, yet it is continually illuminated by moments of unexpected brightness. Moving between sorrow and light, these stories carry readers through shifting emotional landscapes, leaving them deeply moved, yet with a quiet, knowing smile.