Archive for February, 2016

Media Center: ‘Green Island’ by Shawna Yang Ryan

February 18th, 2016

WHO: Shawna Yang Ryan

WHAT: GREEN ISLAND, a novel

WHEN: Published by Knopf February 26, 2016

WHERE: The story is set in Taiwan.

WHY: “Engrossing…absorbing…affecting.
“Ryan lays bare five-and-a-half decades of Taiwanese history through one family’s experience.
“The unnamed narrator is born in 1947, the youngest of four children of Dr. Tsai and his wife, Li Min, a painter. Not long after his daughter’s birth, Dr. Tsai draws the ire of the Chinese Nationalists who control the island and is dragged off to prison. Narrowly escaping execution, he is sentenced to 10 years on Green Island, a prison colony. When he returns, his youngest daughter finds him to be both exacting and enigmatic, haunted by his time in prison as well as continuing government surveillance.
“At 24, the narrator leaves Taiwan to join her new husband, Wei, in Berkeley, California, where he is a professor. But when she and her husband take in a critic of the Taiwanese government who has fled the country, she finds that even in America she and her family are not safe from the fascist government ruling their homeland.
“Absorbing and affecting, this powerful tale explores the bond between a father and daughter, the compromises they are forced to make, and the prices they pay in their quest for freedom.” —Kristine Huntley, in a starred review for BOOKLIST

“An epic political novel.
The narrative works movingly on many different levels but especially on the personal and the political.”—KIRKUS REVIEWS

Jacket photoMedia Resources:
About the book and author | Read an excerpt | Download the jacket | Download the author photo

Publicist for this title:
Jordan Rodman | 212-782-9714 | jrodman@penguinrandomhouse.com