<p><span class="a-text-bold">SHORTLISTED FOR THE WOMEN'S PRIZE FOR FICTION 2024</span></p><p><span>Shanghai, 2007: feeling betrayed by her American mother’s engagement to their rich landlord Lu Fang, fourteen-year-old Alva begins plotting her escape. But the exclusive American School – a potential ticket out – is not what she imagined.</span></p><p><span>Qingdao, 1985: newlywed Lu Fang works as a lowly shipping clerk. Though he aspires to a bright future, he is one of many casualties of harsh political reforms. Then China opens up to foreigners and capital, and Lu Fang meets a</span><span class="a-text-italic"> </span><span>woman who makes him question what he should settle for...</span></p><p><span>A mesmerising reversal of the east–west immigrant narrative set against China’s economic boom, </span><span class="a-text-italic">River East, River West</span><span> is a deeply moving exploration of race, identity and family, of capitalism’s false promise and private dreams. </span></p>
<h3><span>Review</span></h3> <div class="a-section a-spacing-small a-padding-small"> <p><span>‘A novel about reinvention. It’s original, it’s funny, and it’s sometimes heartbreaking as well’ </span><span class="a-text-bold">Monica Ali, bestselling author of </span><span class="a-text-bold a-text-italic">Love Marriage </span><span class="a-text-bold">(judge for the Women's Prize for Fiction 2024)</span></p><span><br><br></span><p><span>'I ... loved Aube Rey Lescure's </span><span class="a-text-italic">River East, River West</span><span>, which</span><span>portrays western expats in Shanghai with both clear-eyed critique and compassion' </span><span class="a-text-bold">Rebecca F Kuang, author of </span><span class="a-text-bold a-text-italic">Yellowface</span></p><span><br><br></span><p><span>'An incredible novel that immediately absorbs you into the lives of a complicated mixed family during China’s economic boom. Rey Lescure writes beautifully about the unfairness of who gets opportunities and who doesn’t, the complexities of family life and the agony of living up to expectations' </span><span class="a-text-bold">Luan Goldie, author of </span><span class="a-text-bold a-text-italic">Nightingale Point</span></p><span><br><br></span><p><span>'Aube Rey Lescure’s beautiful debut makes us feel the inexhaustible mystery of other lives. A moving portrait of the love between a mother and daughter, </span><span class="a-text-italic">River East, River West</span><span> portrays, too, the powerlessness of our loves against the riptides of history' </span><span class="a-text-bold">Garth Greenwell, author of </span><span class="a-text-bold a-text-italic">Cleanness</span></p><span><br><br></span><p><span>'A searing and intimate exploration of both China and the American Dream. Poignant and propulsive, thoughtful and moving. I loved this book' </span><span class="a-text-bold">Jean Kwok, bestselling author of </span><span class="a-text-bold a-text-italic">Searching for Sylvie Lee</span></p><span><br><br></span><p><span>‘A compelling and thought-provoking coming-of-age story about identity and the narratives we create about ourselves. </span><span class="a-text-italic">River East, River West</span><span> offers a vivid portrait of China and the uneasy relationships of class and family history’ </span><span class="a-text-bold">Catherine Cho, author of </span><span class="a-text-bold a-text-italic">Inferno</span></p><span><br><br></span><p><span>‘“River east, river west” comes from a famous Chinese saying, which suggests that the world or people’s destinies are always in constant change, and there is no fixed path of rise, fall, honour or disgrace. Aube Rey Lescure has represented this idea brilliantly in her novel’ </span><span class="a-text-bold">Xinran, author of </span><span class="a-text-bold a-text-italic">The Good Women of China</span></p><span><br><br></span><p><span>'River East, River West offers a fascinating, unexpected insight into a rapidly changing China in the years leading up to 2008. It is a wonderfully compelling debut about a Chinese-American family that lays bare the excesses of wealth, hedonism, poverty, despair and neocolonial arrogance. Clear-eyed, illuminating, tender, devastating, I was swept along by Aube Rey Lescure's storytelling' </span><span class="a-text-bold">Priscilla Morris, author of </span><span class="a-text-bold a-text-italic">Black Butterflies</span></p><span><br><br></span><p><span>'A keen exploration of love, heritage and the search for home, told through alternating points of view – rebellious Alva and her stepfather Lu Fang, with secrets of his own. Aube Rey Lescure’s portrayal of the glitter and grit of China’s tumultuous economic rise is by turns luminous and searing. A haunting debut' </span><span class="a-text-bold">Vanessa Hua, bestselling author of </span><span class="a-text-bold a-text-italic">Forbidden City</span></p><span><br><br></span><p><span>'A beautifully expansive tale of new beginnings – and the pasts we can't extricate ourselves from' </span><span class="a-text-bold">Thao Thai, author of </span><span class="a-text-bold a-text-italic">Banyan Moon</span></p><span><br><br></span><p><span>'Beautifully written and brilliant on race, identity, family and feeling like an outsider' </span><span class="a-text-bold">Sara Lawrence, </span><span class="a-text-bold a-text-italic">Daily Mail</span></p><span><br><br></span><p><span>'A complex and moving exploration of race, class, gender, and family... An ambitious, innovative take on both the immigrant and coming-of-age novel' </span><span class="a-text-bold a-text-italic">Kirkus Review</span></p><span><br><br></span><p><span>‘</span><span class="a-text-italic">River East, River West </span><span>is a beautiful novel, wise and sensitive in dealing with the entanglements of love and culture across national boundaries, and across time; and despite its vast scope, it always feels intimate. A marvellous achievement’ </span><span class="a-text-bold">Tash Aw, author of </span><span class="a-text-bold a-text-italic">Five Star Billionaire</span></p><span><br><br></span><p><span>'Rey Lescure’s prose is cinematic, compelling, perceptive and poignant' </span><span class="a-text-bold a-text-italic">The Guardian</span></p> </div> <h3><span>About the Author</span></h3> <div class="a-section a-spacing-small a-padding-small"> <p><span class="a-text-bold">Aube Rey Lescure</span><span> is a French-Chinese writer who grew up between Provence, northern China and Shanghai. She worked in foreign policy before turning to writing fulltime. Her writing has appeared in </span><span class="a-text-italic">Guernica</span><span>, </span><span class="a-text-italic">Best American Essays</span><span>,</span><span class="a-text-italic"> Litro </span><span>and elsewhere. </span><span class="a-text-italic">River East, River West</span><span> is her debut novel.</span></p> </div>
