Summer of Betrayal

At dawn on the June morning in 1989 following the brutal repression of student demonstrations in Beijing, a young poet flees the bullets, tanks, and soldiers, trying desperately to get back to the flat she shares with her lover. When she discovers him in bed with his estranged wife, she must strike out again - and alone - into the maelstrom of terror and risk that Beijing has become. In the ensuing months, as she is all but overwhelmed by painful memories of the past and by the turmoil of the present, she goes through a kind of sea change: sexual freedom and erotic liberation seem to be the only freedoms left to her, but these, too, may lead to betrayal, and she must find her bearings on her own. This remarkable first novel by a striking young Chinese author is a lyrical, outspoken account of a major turning point in Chinese history, and a cri de coeur from the generation that instigated the bold initiatives of 1989 and suffered most from the cruelties that followed. Summer of Betrayal was published in Taiwan in 1992; though banned in China, it circulated widely there. This is its first publication in the West.