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Staff Pick
In Where the Past Begins, Tan shares her memories of growing up, family secrets, and how emotional truth and fiction comingle. Whether you’re a longtime fan or a newcomer to her work, Tan’s unforgettable prose and wry sense of humor make this a can’t-miss read. Recommended By Mary Jo S., Powells.com
Synopses & Reviews
FROM NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLING AUTHOR AMY TAN, A MEMOIR ON HER LIFE AS A WRITER, HER CHILDHOOD, AND THE SYMBIOTIC RELATIONSHIP BETWEEN FICTION AND EMOTIONAL MEMORY.
In Where the Past Begins, bestselling author of The Joy Luck Club and The Valley of Amazement Amy Tan is at her most intimate in revealing the truths and inspirations that underlie her extraordinary fiction. By delving into vivid memories of her traumatic childhood, confessions of self-doubt in her journals, and heartbreaking letters to and from her mother, she gives evidence to all that made it both unlikely and inevitable that she would become a writer. Through spontaneous storytelling, she shows how a fluid fictional state of mind unleashed near-forgotten memories that became the emotional nucleus of her novels.
Tan explores shocking truths uncovered by family memorabilia — the real reason behind an IQ test she took at age six, why her parents lied about their education, mysteries surrounding her maternal grandmother — and, for the first time publicly, writes about her complex relationship with her father, who died when she was fifteen. Supplied with candor and characteristic humor, Where the Past Begins takes readers into the idiosyncratic workings of her writer’s mind, a journey that explores memory, imagination, and truth, with fiction serving as both her divining rod and link to meaning.
Review
"Any book by best-selling Tan is cause for excitement, and this surprising and gripping memoir will be zealously promoted and discussed." Booklist (Starred Review)
Review
"The best new memoir I’ve read in a decade is Amy Tan’s breath-taking high-wire act of memory and imagination...[a] classic of the form...A must-read for the ages." Mary Karr
About the Author
Amy Tan is the author of five critically acclaimed, internationally bestselling novels. Her first novel, The Joy Luck Club, was nominated for the National Book Award and the National Book Critics Circle Award and was a recipient of the Commonwealth Gold Award. The Joy Luck Club was also adapted into a feature film in 1994. Her subsequent novels are The Kitchen God’s Wife, The Hundred Secret Senses, and The Bonesetter’s Daughter and Saving Fish from Drowning. She lives in San Francisco and New York.