Wuhu Diary. The Mystery Of My Daughter Lulu

Cover Type: Hardcover
Book Condition: Fine
Jacket Condition: Fine
Publisher: Chatto & Windus
Publisher Place: London
Publisher Year: 2001
Edition: First Edition

Description: 240 pages. Book and Jacket appear to have hardly been read and are both in Fine condition throughout.

Publishers Description: This memoir by Emily Prager is about the search for her adopted daughters roots in todays China. In 1994 Prager adopted seven month old LuLu in China. Five years later she returned to spend three months in Wuhu city, where LuLu had been found. Industry Reviews An intimate, everyday portrait of a river city in China, where Prager ("Eves Tattoo", 1991, etc.) adopted her daughter and later returned with her to gather impressions and information before the place underwent the tides of change. Prager, a novelist and humor writer, adopted Lulu from the city of Wuhu in southern China in late 1994. Lulu had been abandoned by her parents for reasons unknown, and Prager wanted to see the orphanage where Lulu spent her first seven months and learn whether there were any documents that might shed some light on her daughters early life. "Im a modest person," declares the author, "a humorist whos scared of feeling," and that is part of what gives her account such charm: She was forced to address profound feelings, and while she never shied away, she was also never glib, searching for words in a way that is sometimes rough but always sincere. While Prager describes the city as she and Lulu go about getting to know the place-they stayed for about six weeks, and the book is structured like an extended diary-she must also explain to five-year-old Lulu what exactly they are doing there-indeed, what it means to be adopted. This aspect of the story weaves itself around other experiences, visiting old tea houses and rock gardens and parks, struggling with bureaucrats and party members, coming across an outdoor park "where about twenty middle-aged couples are ballroom dancing to Chinese pop music emanating from the old Maoist PA speakers," and even more PAs spout Paul Robesons "Old Man River" during a trip to the zoo. NATO bombed the Chinese embassy in Kosovo while they were in town, so their journey was truncated, although not before their snapshot of Wuhu, stolen out of time, was secure. An elegant sense of place, an emotive story of great vulnerability, and a wonderful gift from mother to daughter. (Kirkus Reviews)

ISBN: 9780701169152