A Gesture Life by Chang-Rae Lee

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A Gesture Life by Chang-Rae Lee

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A Gesture Life by Chang-Rae Lee

The second novel from the critically acclaimed New York Times-bestselling author Chang-rae Lee.

His remarkable debut novel was called rapturous (The New York Times Book Review), revelatory (Vogue), and wholly innovative (Kirkus Reviews). It was the recipient of six major awards, including the prestigious Hemingway Foundation/PEN award. Now Chang-rae Lee has written a powerful and beautifully crafted second novel that leaves no doubt about the extraordinary depth and range of his talent.

A Gesture Life is the story of a proper man, an upstanding citizen who has come to epitomize the decorous values of his New York suburban town. Courteous, honest, hardworking, and impenetrable, Franklin Hata, a Japanese man of Korean birth, is careful never to overstep his boundaries and to make his neighbors comfortable in his presence. Yet as his story unfolds, precipitated by the small events surrounding him, we see his life begin to unravel. Gradually we learn the mystery that has shaped the core of his being: his terrible, forbidden love for a young Korean Comfort Woman when he served as a medic in the Japanese army during World War I.

In A Gesture Life, Chang-rae Lee leads us with dazzling control through a taut, suspenseful story about love, family, and community--and the secrets we harbor. As in Native Speaker, he writes of the ways outsiders conform in order to survive and the price they pay for doing so. It is a haunting, breathtaking display of talent by an acclaimed young author.

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Chang-rae Lee is the author of Native Speaker, A Gesture Life, and Aloft, which won the Hemingway Foundation/PEN Prize for debut fiction. Chang-rae Lee teaches writing at Princeton University and was named one of The New Yorker's twenty best writers under forty.

SKU Unavailable
ISBN 13 9781573221467
ISBN 10 1573221465
Title A Gesture Life
Author Chang-Rae Lee
Condition Unavailable
Binding Type Hardback
Publisher Penguin Putnam Inc
Year published 1999-09-06
Number of pages 288
Prizes Winner of ALA Notable Books (Fiction) 2000, Short-listed for New Yorker Book (Fiction) 2000
Cover note Book picture is for illustrative purposes only, actual binding, cover or edition may vary.