Join us on Monday, April 22, to discuss Zhang Ailing's "Love in a Fallen City". We will meet at Garden Books on Changle Rd.

Zhang Ailing (Eileen Chang, 1920 - 1995) is one of the great writers of twentieth-century China. At the heart of her achievement is her short fiction - tales of love, longing, and of family life. Written in Shanghai in the 1940s when Chang was still in her twenties, these extraordinary stories combine a contemporary sensibility, a deep psychological insight, with an intense lyricism that echoes the classics of Chinese literature.

The famous novella "Love in a Fallen City" is one of her most profound pieces of work. Set in 1940s Shanghai and 1941 Hongkong, the story focuses on the love story of divorced Bai Liusu and the just from England returned bachelor Fan Liuyuan that triumphes during wartime Hongkong. Only through the fall of Hongkong after the Japanese invasion, they realize that their love is far more enduring and valuable.