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This is a sensitive and moving story about a young girl’s coming of age culminating in the horror of Tiananmen Square. Many people who read this novel won’t be old enough to recall those events but I am, which made it even more interesting to me.

Lai grows up in the shadow of the increasingly oporessive Communist government. Her mostly silent father was broken by the Cultural Revolution; her mother is frustrated and bitter; but her strong, witty and vulgar grandmother understands her more than the rest of her family. Lai’s life is dominated by her childhood friend Gen who saves her from a bad situation. But when she goes to university she meets the dramatic Anna and her group of friends who take her out of herself and show her a different world but their rebellion ends in tragedy.

It’s a book that asks what price you should pay for freedom? This book is especially poignant in the light of how the totalitarian Chinese government has taken over Tibet and Hong Kong.

I received this free ebook from NetGalley in return for an honest review.

This was a book I was super interested in as it was an historic event I was keen to look at from the lens of fiction, helping me to understand the political situation more and better moved by the chatacters' involvement with the tragedy. But the writing style of this novel was distracting. I just felt it was poorly written with a repetitive use of language, weird pacing, and patchy characterisation. I wanted to journey with these characters but could not emotionally engage due to the clunky writing.
This honest review is given with thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for this book.

A brilliant insight to Chinese culture, tradition and family at an important time in China's history. Told by Lai Wen, we learn of her life growing up in Beijing in the 70s and 80s, tradition and culture both support and clash against her as she navigates her childhood into teenage years and university, the support and then loss of her grandmother, the distance and differences between her and her mother, her relationship with Gen, the other students and Anna Macaw.

Thanks to NetGalley and the publishers for allowing me to read Tiananmen Square

Tiananmen Square is a beautiful, thought provoking novel that portrays growing up in post-Cultural revolution China in the 1970s/80s. We follow the protaganist Lai from childhood to womanhood as well as gaining insight into her parent's and grandmothers experiences which impact her often fractious family life. As Lai moves through adolescence into early adulthood she becomes increasingly more politically aware and in doing so begins to understand her true self. As the title indicates the culmination of the story revolves around Tiananmen square and the student protests leading up to this and we experience this from Lai's perspective although the "reveal" didn't do much for me. Despite this, Tiananmen square is a well-written, slow paced novel and Lai is a warming and engaging narrator.

Thank you NetGalley and Swift Press for this eCopy to review

I was completely absorbed by Tiananmen Square. It is a beautiful portrayal of growing up in 1970s and 80s Beijing and living through the Tiananmen Square riots. The impact it had on family life was far reaching. Lai is able to expand her horizons and learn new ways of thinking at her local bookshop, leading her to go on to college. A fascinating insight into a period of history I am not very familiar with.

Tiananmen Square follows Lai, growing up in post-Cultural Revolution China. We follow her from childhood to adulthood, experiencing all the usual rites of passage alongside her. However, far from the typical youth, the reality of the political regime is ever-present; while often at arm’s length, at times it is terrifyingly close. As Lai finds her place, her friends and her voice, we bear witness to the stirrings of rebellion, the courage of resistance and find ourselves alongside Lai in Tiananmen Square in June 1989.

This is a novel, however it draws on the author’s personal experience of witnessing these events. Lai Wen grew up in China but left in 1989 following the horrors of Tiananmen Square. She recounts these events now under a pseudonym and, although a work of fiction, the author’s real-life connection to this part of history gives the work a depth that marked it out to me. The character’s actions and emotions feel anchored in a truth that can only come from first-hand experience. At points, this reads almost like a memoir, which for me contributed to the emotions I felt as a reader- through fiction, the author is able to speak her truth.

This novel is one that gets under your skin and is hard to shake off. I really enjoyed the pacing here too - the first parts read slower as Lai grows up and goes about her daily life. Then, as she is enveloped in a cultural movement, the writing quickens and builds to its crescendo in the final part. It’s impressive.

If you’re looking got a full novel about the student protests, this isn’t it. This is the journey of an ordinary girl, from growing up in an apartment a stone’s throw from Tiananmen Square to finding herself experiencing its darkest day.

I would definitely recommend this one - it’s not an easy read but I feel it’s an important one. It’s captivating, intimate and so moving, I finished it in tears.

Thank you to Swift Press and NetGalley got the eARC of this book!

It is unclear how autobiographical the story is and how much is fiction. The note at the end implies it is more fact than fiction. The book covers about 10 years of Lai's life until she leaves for Canada shortly after the Tiananmen Square massacre. The bulk of the book is about a dysfunctional child growing up in a dysfunctional family. This does become tedious. Although the massacre is described, it is limited to what Lai sees rather than any deeper description. There is virtually no description of the consequences.
I have read several books describing life in China that give a far better perspective. Unfortunately this book wasn't for me.

Oh I wanted to love this! Unfortunately it fell short for me. I requested this hoping to learn about an area of history that I don’t have much knowledge of. Whilst it was well written, I wanted to get so much more from the first 3/4 of the book - I found it hard to get a sense of what life was like at the time, it was more about friendships and relationships that could happen anywhere. The final part of the book, about the actual events in Tiananmen Square did have some really touching bits, but most of it just didn’t have the momentum to keep the tension going.

Thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for this eARC.

Wow! This was a stunning novel, based on the real life events in Tiananmen Square in 1989, and it was a truly absorbing recollection of events, based on a young girl growing up in China and seeing how her perception of the world changes as she gets older.

We start the journey with her as a young girl living with her family during the 1970's and we already see the impact the regime of the time had affected her parents and the older generation. Each character we meet is so different, and that gives a really fascinating insight into how each person of different ages and character traits had dealt with life around them - from her father, to mother, to her grandmother. Lai is just a young girl so we watch the world through her eyes, and a lot of her time is just spent 'being a kid'! You see her become aware of differences and looking to challenge the world, but at home is not the place where she feels free to discuss things.

She soon finds the owner of the local bookshop becomes her 'safe' space, and he became one of my favourite characters, along with her grandmother, as he introduces her to new literature and becomes her 2nd uncle as he isn't afraid to give her a different take on the world they are living in.

The story continues through her school years, to college life, where she becomes even more aware of all things political as censorship begins to increase and as I remember watching the protests on TV at the time, it makes it more poignant to see it through the students eyes of what was going on and knowing that it was something historic.

I loved the way the story was told, and how spending time with all these characters that you really felt part of the family, seeing how they all dealt with what life was throwing their way, and watching Lai evolve through the different stages in her life was engrossing and it feels like a very honest and moving recollection of truly historic times. Highly recommended!

"[...]life's inevitable corollary; that imagination would always be papered over by propaganda, that the poets and peacemakers would always be stamped out by those who had force on their side."

If Tiananmen Square was a memoir, it would have given depth and individuality to the story. But as a novel it is bland, boring and too generic a story. I guess the title is slightly misleading too. I, for one, was expecting a strong story about the protests but in fact this is a coming of age that covers a little bit of the story around Tiananmen Square. But the issues continue, because the coming of age itself is so generic is almost hard to say it is happening in China, in the middle of rather tumultuous historical events. Apart from a few allusions: like the violence towards children by parents and women by men, a line here and there about the famine, Mao and the early persecutions at his hands...this could have been set anywhere, with nothing to set it apart for countless other coming of age novels out there!

A shame really....

I remember watching on the television news the horror of Tiananmen Square, and was interested to know more about the time and events surrounding it.
However this book, told from the POV of Lai, 12 years old at the beginning, was very slow. I really struggled with the endless descriptions of everything that happened in a day in the life of Lai, without getting to know her any better. I feel I hardly scratched the surface of any of the characters involved. . I’m sorry to say that the book failed to hold my interest long enough for me to reach the tragedy that was Tiananmen Square, so I learned very little, disappointingly. It was just too slow and a bit flat.
My thanks to the publisher and Netgalley for the advance copy of this book.

I am of an age that I remember watching the events of Tiananmen Square unfold, but did not understand or appreciate their political relevance, so I was keen to read this novel. It is written in the first person and is based on the author's personal experiences, though it is unclear where the line between memoir and fiction actually is.

I found it a slow read at first - Lai's childhood is meticulously reported and it was hard to really get to know the characters, other than her beloved 'Po Po' who is quite a force to be reckoned with. The relationships within the family and between Lai and Gen all seemed fractured and unstable to me. I was interested in the cultural differences of growing up in China rather than my own experiences in the UK - neighbours who live so close that their judgement matters and seemed powerful at times as to the choices the family made.

Historically, I learnt a lot from this book - I found myself curious about events and looking up details about Chairman Mao and the bizarre visit to him, and, of course, the events which led up to the famous images we all know so well from Tiananmen Square. The ending is quite surprising, but, considering the title, it takes an awfully long time to get to Tiananmen Square.

Lai's childhood is unusual and fractured. I found the references to self-harming quite distressing, yet understandable. Gen was quite despicable and I wanted to scream at Lai and her naivety more than once. I'm not sure that even by the end of the book, post Tiananmen Square, she has truly faced her own personal demons. I have learnt a lot from reading this book and am glad that I persevered through the first part, which seemed quite slow and simplistic,

This beautiful tale follows the growing up of teenage Lai, who is living in a small flat with her family which includes her grandmother. It is the 1970s in Beijing, and she belongs to a generation that will see immense change within a relatively short time frame.

That change does not however include political freedom, as those of us living through the 1980s will well recall. The horror of the events that took place in the siege of Tiananmen Square is not something that most contemporaries will forget, least of all those who lived through it in Beijing.

Lai's political awakening, her family dynamics, and the huge impact of the events taking place in China are brought vividly to life in this fine piece of writing. Worth a read, it gets 3.5 stars.

This is an absorbing read full of history, culture and tradition.
As Lai grows up in the 1970’s so China is growing up too.
Events come to a head in June 1989.
A tough read at times but worth reading.

This is a poignant and delicately written novel that follows Lai as a young teenager as she grows and 'comes of age' all the while leading up to a devastating climax surrounding the events during the protests of Tiananmen Square.

Lai is truly such a fantastic storyteller. Every scenario that she describes was so beautifully depicted that it was easy to immerse yourself into her world, whether she was with her quirky family at home or at school surrounded by her classmates and friends. Although this book was originally slow to progress, I truly enjoyed the pace just getting to know our 'protagonist' and her interesting family as she grows from a younger adolescent teenager to a young adult, and navigates through the many emotional challenges of life and death, while learning how to grow as a person.

I was too young to be aware of the protests that happened in 1989, but I have since heard them mentioned and know enough about them to know how important they were in history.. and just how eye opening and relevant this still is today.

Tiananmen Square is more than just a typical coming of age story. It's one girl's political awakening. It's a journey throughout adolescence through to young adulthood, surrounded by a colorful set of quirky characters. Lai manages to bring each character to life as though we are watching events unfold beside her. Though I was expecting more when it came to Lai recounting the events that unfolded surrounding the massacres and violence, I felt perhaps it was because it was something she truly struggled to come to terms with, a part of her she left behind because of how much it shook her to her core. I was actually in awe of how much the author really remembered in detail and how she was able to convey so much emotion throughout her childhood and college life.

This story has a real personal touch to it, it's ever-so beautifully told. But I also felt like the last 10% of the story, where the horror of the events from the protests themselves actually unfolded, was very rushed and a lot of the depth of the emotion was lost on me. I can only imagine though how much difficulty Lai had in touching base with those memories that she'd painstakingly tried to move on from for so many years. Trauma is a difficult thing to write about, and I know just how hard it is to fully lay out such a painful experience in depth without it opening a whole box of emotions.

To me Lai seemed like a bit of a lonely person; always keeping her family and the friendships she made at arms length, and vice versa. Even her relationship with Gen felt strained, which I'm sure in part was due to the way she was treated by him, and the same goes for her relationship with her parents and family, who it seemed like she always felt misunderstood by.
It was when she met Anna that she started to find her own sense of belonging, and the world began to open up further for her.

This book recounts a truly important event in history, one that captures the growing hope and idealism within a country marred by the people's uncertainty and anxieties surrounding the future. I would definitely recommend it, as it opened up my eyes to a piece of history and educated me more about the political landscape of China around the 1970s-80s.

Despite the book's length (around 500 pages), it never really felt it outstayed its welcome. As someone with a terrible attention span, it managed to keep me invested rather easily from beginning to end, and this potentially is due to how it is written, instead feeling like I was right there alongside Lai as she grew from an insecure young girl against the turbulent backdrop of a country rife with political unrest.

A brilliant and important read.
Think you know what happened back in 1989 in Tiananmen Square? Think again.
An engrossing look at life growing up in China in the 70s and 80s cumulating in the protests in Tiananmen Square. Leaving aside this important historical event, we get an insight into a totally different upbringing to that of children in the western world and yet for all those differences there are so many coming of life similarities too.
A read that will educate you and stay with you long after the last sentence is read.

🇨🇳 REVIEW 🇨🇳

Tiananmen Square by Lai Wen
Publishing Date: 30th May

⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️.5/5

📝 - As a child in Beijing in the 1970s, Lai lives with her family in a lively, working-class neighborhood near the heart of the city. Thoughtful yet unassuming, she spends her days with her friends beyond the attention of her parents: Her father is a reclusive figure who lingers in the background, while her mother, an aging beauty and fervent patriot, is quick-tempered and preoccupied with neighborhood gossip. Only Lai’s grandmother, a formidable and colorful maverick, seems to really see Lai and believe that she can blossom beyond their circumstances. But Lai is quickly awakened to the harsh realities of the Chinese state. As she moves through childhood, adolescence and into young adulthood, she is exposed to the real world in many ways, and struggles to find her own identity amongst the ever changing world around her.

💭 - This was really a brilliant piece of literature. Reading almost as a memoir, we are taken through the smallest moments of Lai’s life, however insignificant they may seem. And yet, even at more than 500 pages, everything was valuable, whether it be a small interaction within the family, Lai’s general personal musings on her experiences, or a more significant event, and that is quite a feat. While Lai is naive, this is not in an unrealistic sense, and all her thoughts and actions flow in a coherent manner, creating a really well developed character. Additionally, I felt that I learnt a lot about China during the 1970s-90s through this book, as it gave real historical context, without seeming too heavy, and I really value being able to take away some additional knowledge from a work of fiction.

Overall, one I would definitely recommend, especially to lovers of coming-of-age and/or historical fiction - don’t let its length put you off!

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This book is beautifully written. I read it slowly as I wanted to savour every word. The book is based on the author’s life. It is not clear how much is fictionalised but the students protesting in Tiananmen Square in the late 80s is a part of history I remember well as my parents were visiting that part of China when this happened. I remember being worried about them. However, my concern pales into insignificance when you consider the worry the families of these students went through. The author was a student at this time and the last part of the book describes in detail the feelings of solidarity but also of fear. The author no longer lives in China and is able to tell her story. However, much as this is very interesting from a historical point of view, it is the first part of the book that I really love as the author writes about childhood so well. It brings back vivid memories of my own childhood. I came from a totally different background but our hopes, dreams and worries were similar. Thank you Netgalley for allowing me to read and review a book that I definitely recommend.

“Being human is about remembering. We are the sum of all our memories. And yet, everyone forgets.”

Memoir or fiction? I would say memoir, written under a pseudonym to protect the author, and any family members remaining in China. This story is about growing up in Beijing in the 1970s and 80s. There is something so deeply touching, tender yet powerful in the writing.

We follow Lai on her journey as she leads us through her childhood and teenage years. She tells us of her fears, anxieties and insecurities which are so painful yet exquisitely written. Her voice is soft and sensitive. Lai introduces us to her friends, playful and innocent until an incident with the controlling regime’s police brutality and forever changes her.

We get to know her family. The withdrawn father. The bitter angry mother. The rebellious, spirited grandmother whose strength grounds them all. Each character in their own way presents us with lingering aspects of the Cultural Revolution. Tiananmen Square viewed, for most of the book, from a distance, is the ever present reminder of this past. As the story develops we are witness to Lai’s awareness changing and her political activism developing while attending Peking University.

It is only there, near the end of the book, that the story brings us to the events of the student rebellion of 1989 in Tiananmen Square. Lai is our witness to the actions of the government, the military, and the consequences of her friend's involvement..

This coming of age story is compelling, haunting, emotive and written beautifully. By the end, it left me in tears. It is a book I will long remember.

Thank you to the publishers and to NetGalley for the ARC.