Background
Shan Sa was born as Yan Ni in Beijing, China, to a scholarly family.
(In a remote Manchurian town in the 1930s, a sixteen-year-...)
In a remote Manchurian town in the 1930s, a sixteen-year-old girl is more concerned with intimations of her own womanhood than the escalating hostilities between her countrymen and their Japanese occupiers. While still a schoolgirl in braids, she takes her first lover, a dissident student. The more she understands of adult life, however, the more disdainful she is of its deceptions, and the more she loses herself in her one true passion: the ancient game of go. Incredibly for a teenager–and a girl at that–she dominates the games in her town. No opponent interests her until she is challenged by a stranger, who reveals himself to us as a Japanese soldier in disguise. They begin a game and continue it for days, rarely speaking but deeply moved by each other’s strategies. As the clash of their peoples becomes ever more desperate and inescapable, and as each one’s untold life begins to veer wildly off course, the girl and the soldier are absorbed by only one thing–the progress of their game, each move of which brings them closer to their shocking fate. In The Girl Who Played Go, Shan Sa has distilled the piercing emotions of adolescence into an engrossing, austerely beautiful story of love, cruelty and loss of innocence. From the Hardcover edition.
http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/009949079X/?tag=2022091-20
(As the Japanese military invades 1930s Manchuria, a young...)
As the Japanese military invades 1930s Manchuria, a young girl approaches her own sexual coming of age. Drawn into a complex triangle with two boys, she distracts herself from the onslaught of adulthood by playing the game of go with strangers in a public square--and yet the force of desire, like the occupation, proves inevitable. Unbeknownst to the girl who plays go, her most worthy and frequent opponent is a Japanese soldier in disguise. Captivated by her beauty as much as by her bold, unpredictable approach to the strategy game, the soldier finds his loyalties challenged. Is there room on the path to war for that most revolutionary of acts: falling in love?
http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/1400032288/?tag=2022091-20
(Depuis 1931, le dernier empereur de Chine règne sans pouv...)
Depuis 1931, le dernier empereur de Chine règne sans pouvoir sur la Mandchourie occupée par l'armée japonaise. Alors que l'aristocratie tente d'oublier dans de vaines distractions la guerre et ses cruautés, une lycéenne de seize ans joue au go. Place des Mille Vents, ses mains infaillibles manipulent les pions. Mélancolique mais fiévreuse, elle rêve d'un autre destin. Le bonheur est un combat d'encerclement. Sur le damier, elle bat tous ses prétendants. Mais la joueuse ignore encore son adversaire de demain : un officier japonais dur comme le métal, à peine plus âgé qu'elle, dévoué à l'utopie impérialiste. Ils s'affrontent, ils s'aiment, sans un geste, jusqu'au bout, tandis que la Chine vacille sous les coups de l'envahisseur qui tue, pille, torture. D'une voix pleine de fraîcheur et d'innocence, Valérie Karsenti donne vie à la joueuse de go, jeune lycéenne chinoise amoureuse d'un officier japonais incarné avec sobriété et élégance par Christian Gonon de la Comédie-Française. Une magnifique histoire d'amour et d'apprentissage dans la Mandchourie des années 30.
http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0320096874/?tag=2022091-20
(Blond, yeux bleus, sourire triomphant. Un Américain. Bell...)
Blond, yeux bleus, sourire triomphant. Un Américain. Belle, déterminée, cruelle. Une Chinoise. Désabusé, cynique, ambitieux. Un Français. Paris, Pékin, Washington. Sur le grand échiquier planétaire, trois pions lancés dans un jeu de rôles et d'espionnage aussi cruel que redoutable, où plus personne ne sait qui est qui, qui aime qui.
http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/225312141X/?tag=2022091-20
Shan Sa was born as Yan Ni in Beijing, China, to a scholarly family.
Her second novel to appear in English translation was Empress (2006). She was awarded chevalier of the Ordre des Arts et des Lettres in July 2009 and chevalier of the Ordre national du Mérite in May 2011. Shan Sa is also a painter with exhibitions in Paris, New York, and Shanghai.
She adopted the pseudonym Shan Sa from a poem by the Tang Dynasty poet Bai Juyi.
At age 8, she published her first poetry collection, and went on to obtain the first prize in the national poetry contest for children under 12 years, an event that created a public upheaval. After graduating from secondary school in Beijing, she moved to Paris in August 1990 thanks to a grant by the French government.
Settling there with her father, a professor at the Sorbonne University, she quickly adopted the French language. In 1994, she finished her studies of philosophy.
From 1994 to 1996 she worked as a secretary of painter Balthus.
(In a remote Manchurian town in the 1930s, a sixteen-year-...)
(Depuis 1931, le dernier empereur de Chine règne sans pouv...)
(As the Japanese military invades 1930s Manchuria, a young...)
(Blond, yeux bleus, sourire triomphant. Un Américain. Bell...)
(280pages. in8. Broché.)