February Flowers

By Fan Wu

Set in modern China, February Flowers tells the stories of two young women’s journeys to self-discovery and reconciliation with the past.

Seventeen-year-old Ming and twenty-four-year-old Yan have very little in common other than studying in the same college. Ming, idealistic and preoccupied, lives in a world of books, music, and imagination. Yan, by contrast, is sexy, cynical, and wild, with no sense of home. Yet when the two meet, they soon become best friends. Their friendship is brief, almost accidental, but intense, and
it changes Ming’s world forever.

Insightful, sophisticated, and rich with complex characters, February Flowers captures a society torn between tradition and modernity, dogma and freedom. It is a meditation on friendship, family, love, loss and redemption, and how a background shapes a life.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Random House Publishing Group
• Release date: Aug 20, 2010
• ISBN: 9780385673495

Fan Wu

Fan Wu grew up on a state-run farm in southern China, where her parents were exiled during the Cultural Revolution. Her debut novel, February Flowers, has been translated into eight languages, and her short fiction, besides being anthologized and nominated for the Pushcart Prize, has appeared in Granta, The Missouri Review, Ploughshares, and elsewhere. Wu holds an M.A. from Stanford University and currently lives in Santa Clara, California. Please visit her website at www.fanwuwrites.com.

Reviews for February Flowers

[iamagirldork_1 · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

I really enjoyed this book. Wu's writing is easy to read and enjoyable as well. Yan and Ming and like two people who can't live with one another and yet can't live without each other. The ending I found abrupt, but I liked the ending. After reading the end a second time, I felt it was very appropriate. Can't wait to read more of hers.

[jillmccaghern · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

Tha story teller Ming, met Miao Yan in 1991 at University. Ming is 17 and a serious student but Miao Yan is 24 and worldly. She does not realise the efect she has on Ming. The story gradually unfolds and Yan becomes the catalyst for Ming's homosexual awakening. Great insight into contemporary China.

[mich_yms · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

Narrated by Chen Ming, February Flowers is a story of her memories as she recalls her brief but meaningful relationship with Miao Yan during her years at university. Ming, a serious 17-year-old student befriends the vivacious and outgoing 24-year-old Miao Yan through a series of coincidences. Ming would have never imagined herself to be so attached to anyone, much less a woman so different from herself. But as much as opposites attract, their differences create a friction that at once pulls them together, and pushes them further apart.In a nutshell, February Flowers is a story about youth, about growing up, and about discovering one’s self. As all of us grow up, we experience a process that no one else can, no one else but ourselves. It’s about that individual path we take, the small choices and decisions we make, the abundance of emotions that we feel and go through every minute of the day.

[zerraweth · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

Thoughtful, and quietly so.