CELIA, MISOKA, I, Xue Yiwei
CELIA, MISOKA, I, Xue Yiwei
List: $22.00 | Sale: $15.40
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CELIA, MISOKA, I

Author: Xue Yiwei

Narrator: Kevin Qian

Unabridged: 9 hr 27 min

Format: Digital Audiobook Download

Published: 04/26/2022


Synopsis

A meditation on the meaning of life in an increasingly global world, from acclaimed Chinese-Canadian author Xue Yiwei. Set in modern-day Montreal, Celia, Misoka, I is the story of a middle-aged Chinese man who has been living in the city for fifteen years. After the death of his wife, he begins to reflect on his past and how he has ended up alone in Canada, a solitary member of the Chinese diaspora. It is in this period of angst and uncertainty, during the most unusual of winters, that he meets two women by Beaver Lake, on Montreal’s Mount Royal. They, too, have their own stories: stories of their own personal plights, which connect present to past, and West to East.The distinct paths taken by these three characters — Celia, Misoka, and “I” — span continents and decades, but, whether by chance or design, converge in Montreal, like mysterious figures in an ancient Chinese Zen painting. After coming together, the three begin to examine who they are, where they might belong, and how to navigate otherness and identity in a globalized world.

Reviews

Goodreads review by Mandy

A quietly meditative book about identity and the meaning of life, and about immigration, estrangement, loneliness and displacement. Weighty themes indeed and sympathetically handled here, but overall I couldn’t relate to the narrator of this melancholy novel and thus found myself unmoved by his plig......more

Goodreads review by Angel

I am a little ambivalent about this book. On the one hand I think I understand what Xue Yiwei is trying to do in this book: talk about second (or third...) opportunities, about how mistakes change us but also help us evolve, about the importance of family in our daily life, about the fear of losing......more

Goodreads review by Kaleb

The fact was we were all different. In this globalized, information age everyone was changing and no one could understand anyone else; we could not see the change in ourselves so we assumed that it was everyone else who was changing. The absurdity of our condition struck me but it did not shake my r......more

Goodreads review by Bob

This is a quietly haunting book, where we regularly shift time and perspective to chart the story of a couple before and after they migrate to Montreal from China, with vignettes woven in of the titular Celia and Misoka. We receive all of this through the 'I' who narrates the book, and we quickly see......more