Little Gods

A Novel

By: Meng Jin

Narrated by: Karen Huie, Francois Chau, Emily Woo Zeller

Length: 9 hrs and 30 mins

Publisher's summary

“Expands the future of the immigrant novel.” (Gish Jen, New York Times Book Review)

“Spectacular and emotionally polyphonic.... That Jin has managed to craft such an intimate, emotionally complex story is an awesome achievement. That she managed to do it in her debut novel, doubly so.” (Omar El Akkad, BookPage, starred review)

On the night of June 4th, a woman gives birth in a Beijing hospital alone. Thus begins the unraveling of Su Lan, a brilliant physicist who until this moment has successfully erased her past, fighting what she calls the mind’s arrow of time.

Seventeen years later, Su Lan’s daughter, Liya, brings her mother’s ashes to China, along with the silences and contradictions of Su Lan’s life. In a territory inhabited by the ghosts of the living and the dead, Liya’s memories are joined by those of two others: Zhu Wen, the woman last to know Su Lan before she left China, and Yongzong, the father Liya has never known. In this way a portrait of Su Lan emerges: an ambitious scientist, an ambivalent mother, and a woman whose relationship to her own history shapes and ultimately unmakes Liya’s own sense of displacement.

A story of migrations literal and emotional, spanning time, space, and class, Little Gods is a sharp yet expansive exploration of the aftermath of unfulfilled dreams, an immigrant story in negative that grapples with our tenuous connections to memory, history, and self.

©2020 Meng Jin (P)2020 HarperAudio

Critic reviews

"A trio of gifted narrators performs this debut novel told from alternating points of view.... All the narrators imbue the characters with personality and bring them to life. Their performances play well together, each engaging the listener. Huie's quiet, expressive style, Chau's mild manner, and Zeller's versatility ensure that each of their protagonists comes to the forefront of her chapters. A beautiful production." (AudioFile Magazine)

Great story but fizzled in the end

This story started simply , spare and beautiful. Then it evolve in too many gratuitous side stories , twists , America speak and cliche values ( did her backpack really need to get stolen? )which dragged down the magic of
the thing . Brilliant women were reduced to hopeless helpless creatures and the men were flawed in their own ways too. I felt sad for every Chinese person I saw dragging a baby and a book bag around at US campuses I used to visit.

Glad I found this one!

Elegant, unique and very engaging with wonderful moments of science and truly memorable characters. Excellent narration was a plus.

Lots of POVs and story lines

This is an interesting story. I really enjoyed the women's points of view. The men's got more interesting toward the end, but their voices weren't as distinct. I enjoyed the journey, and having information revealed slowly by different characters. There was definitely a strong connection to the mother, and empathy for the daughter grew in the last half of the book. The narration is good.

I don't have a single complaint.

Went into it fully blind as I closed my eyes and scrolled to a title in my library at random. Within the first chapter I was entirely sucked in. Thematically, it's incredibly relevant to me right now with its examination of motherhood and the way it changes everything.

Had me in tears more than once, and holding them back probably half the time. Many excerpts of this story are downright haunting; Zhu Wen's description of her husband's ghosts, for example. Every line in this entire damn novel is just heartbreaking.

The prose is beautiful and the story is gripping despite being one of the "nothing actually happens"
type books; which may be why some have a hard time feeling vested, but personally I have such a weakness for these when executed well. It took me 11 days to read it (I've been super busy) and not a single day passed since my first dip where I haven't thought about it and yearned to immerse myself in Su Lan's world again, as narrated through the people fulfilling different roles in her mysterious and dynamic life; the planets orbiting her sun.

Excellent Story!

I enjoyed this story a lot. I finished it straight thru. The narrator's also did a fabulous job.

liked it right up until the end

it's good overall until the ending. Nothing is answered and it's confusing. I wish it was clearer there but otherwise good.

Amazing Read, planning to buy the hardcover!

An enthralling journey through time to uncover the past, except our key character Su Lan doesn't want it exposed. Loved loved loved it!!!

Confusing

The narrators are exceptional. The story line is difficult to follow at times. Historical references of the various revolutions post WWll in China helped place context for the characters situations

wonderful journey through time and space

I loved the story the characters, the mixing in of Chinese culture and language. science and experience. highly recommend.

Intriguing story

A journey through several lifetimes in Shanghai, Beijing, other remote areas of China, to Los Angeles and back again. A story woven out of peasantry, intellect, politics, physics, mysticism and philosophy. So interesting.