Once Our Lives: Life, Death and Love in the Middle Kingdom (GWE Creative Non-Fiction #60) (Paperback)
Glamour UK Best New Books of June 2023 Pick
Gold Book Award Winner - Nonfiction Authors Association Book Awards
Once Our Lives is the true story of four generations of Chinese women and how their lives were threatened by powerful and cruel ancient traditions, historic upheavals, and a man whose fate – cursed by an ancient superstition – dramatically altered their destinies. The book takes the reader on an exotic journey filled with luxurious banquets, lost jewels, babies sold in opium dens, kidnappings by pirates, and a desperate flight from death in the desert – seen through the eyes of a man for whom the truth would spell disaster and a lonely, beautiful girl with three identities.
Qin Sun Stubis, author of the historical memoir, Once Our Lives, is a Chinese-American writer in the Washington, D.C. area. She is a longtime newspaper columnist and writes poems, essays, short stories and original Chinese tall tales inspired by traditional Asian themes.
"Stubis is not the first to write about a Chinese family’s history from World War II through the Cultural Revolution, but her book stands out . . . it reads like a novel, poetic and descriptive." —Asian Review of Books.
"Stubis' book stands out ... it reads like a novel, poetic and descriptive." —Asian Review of Books
"A well-written, beautifully immersive book that, while non-fiction, reads even better than fiction. Very highly recommended."—Readers Favorite