Synopsis
In the radical atmosphere of the Cultural Revolution, Lian's family has lost their prominence and is considered beneath contempt. Just as Lian forms a friendship with Kim, a reviled outcast of the third caste, ironically, the highest class by Mao's decree, Lian's father is transferred to a far-off province, and her mother, a historian, is forced into a reeducation camp. When Lian becomes ill, her headstrong mother secures permission to take Lian with her to the prison camp. There, despite the grueling conditions, Lian has the educational opportunity of a lifetime: Several of the nation's leading scholars, all prisoners of the regime, teach her lessons she would never have learned at school. In the camp, with no contemporary to speak to, she finds a place to repeat her politically condemned lessons and thus discovers her own voice, a place she calls "the Lily Theater." Returning from the camp to Kim, Lian struggles to reconnect with her friend. But their fierce closeness cannot alter the rigid caste system still reigning in Communist China, and their lives turn as chaotic as their turbulent country. With unflinching honesty, Lulu Wang captures the coarse reality of Maoist China, startlingly offset by the deeply moving story of two girls who fight the odds to preserve their friendship. Winner of the Nonino International Prize for Literature in 1999, THE LILY THEATER is being published abroad in fourteen countries (Australia, Brazil, Finland, France, Germany, Iceland, Israel, Italy, Japan, Norway, Portugal, Spain, Sweden, UK).
