The Age of Goodbyes, Li Zi Shu
The Age of Goodbyes, Li Zi Shu
List: $24.99 | Sale: $17.50
Club: $12.49

The Age of Goodbyes

Author: Li Zi Shu, YZ Chin

Narrator: Catherine Ho

Unabridged: 13 hr 49 min

Format: Digital Audiobook Download

Publisher: Tantor Media

Published: 01/17/2023


Synopsis

By one of Southeast Asia's most exciting writers, The Age of Goodbyes is a wildly inventive account of family history, political turmoil, and the redemptive grace of storytelling.

In 1969, in the wake of Malaysia's deadliest race riots, a woman named Du Li An secures her place in society by marrying a gangster. In a parallel narrative, a critic known only as The Fourth Person explores the work of a writer also named Du Li An. And a third storyline is in the second person; "you" are reading a novel titled The Age of Goodbyes. Floundering in the wake of "your" mother's death, "you" are trying to unpack the secrets surrounding "your" lineage.

The Age of Goodbyes is the acclaimed debut by Li Zi Shu. The winner of multiple awards and a Taiwanese bestseller, this dazzling novel is a profound exploration of what happens to personal memory when official accounts of history distort and render it taboo.

About Li Zi Shu

Li Zi Shu is the author of more than a dozen books, including the novels Worldly Land and The Age of Goodbyes, which won the China Times Open Book Award. Her work has been recognized with multiple literary prizes in Malaysia, Taiwan, and Hong Kong, including several Huazhong Literary Awards.


Reviews

Goodreads review by Aaron on December 21, 2023

Nobody contains more multitudes than our girl Du Li An......more

Goodreads review by Natasha on November 25, 2024

this book was so so weird but very good......more

Goodreads review by Gina on February 01, 2024

I don't really know why it took me a full year to finish this book. It's not particularly dense or especially convoluted, though I did have a bit of trouble keeping track of the three layers of narrative at the beginning. The sense of place also takes a while to settle in - it's not until the word k......more

Goodreads review by eel on May 11, 2025

not fully decided on rating, but definitely at least a 3.5 trending towards a 4 star read. The Age of Goodbyes is an underrated and carefully written novel by Li Zi Chu, translated by YZ Chin (published by Feminist Press) primarily exploring the lives of Malaysian Chinese women in a small urban area......more

Goodreads review by Suzy on December 27, 2022

Intriguing metafiction with lots of layers that all feed into each other, to form a complex web of parallel and interconnected narratives. I think I am missing some needed context to catch all the Malaysian history referenced in the blurbs (I'm unclear when "silenced memories of racial violence, soc......more