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“Three Brothers: Memories of My Family” by Yan Lianke Online NCTA Book Club

Teachers joined Tese Wintz Neighbor for an insightful tribute and heart wrenching journey to rural China in the 1960s and 1970s. Three Brothers: Memories of My Family is a record of Chinese recent history as well as the story of one family. Written by Yan Lianke, it is a powerful and poignant portrait as he recalls and grapples with his rural roots and family relations.

According to World Literature Today, Three Brothersnot only provides a deeply heartfelt account of his big family—including his father, his uncles, and his cousins—but also offers a philosophical meditation on dignity, duty, death, and the bond of a rural Chinese family.”

Participants explored Yan Lianke’s family home and discussed his intimate and often poetic 200-page memoir. Yan Lianke is the winner of the Franz Kafka Prize and twice finalist for the International Booker Prize. Dubbed “China’s most controversial novelist” by The New Yorker, Yan has published more than a dozen novels and more than 40 short stories. Some of his most renowned and satirical stories are banned in China. This is his first memoir.

Read more about this book in the review from the Asian Review of Books.

Program details

Participants picked ONE of the following dates:

Group 1: Tuesday, December 6, 2022; 4:30 PM to 6:30 PM (Pacific Time)

Group 2: Thursday, December 8, 2022; 4:30 PM to 6:30 PM (Pacific Time)

This wasan online program and will be led over Zoom.

Program benefits

  • A physical or digital copy of the book (sent to participants ahead of time)
  • Online Resource packet
  • Four free Washington State OSPI clock hours

This program was sponsored by the East Asia Resource Center at the University of Washington and funded by a Freeman Foundation grant in support of the National Consortium for Teaching about Asia (NCTA)