Nothing to My Name

by Kangkang Kovacs

Inspired by the author’s own family history, and spanning the past hundred years of Chinese history, this multi-generational family saga explores how women survive the tsunamis of history

Nothing to My Name chronicles the intertwined fates of three generations of Chinese Ah Xue, Mimosa, and Fei. The Grandmother, Ah Xue, witnesses the rise of the Communist Revolution while earning a meager living combing the hair of the few wealthy ladies in her small fishing village. Mimosa, the Mother, grows up in the shadow of her parents’ struggles as the growing tension of the Cultural Revolution threatens to pull their family apart. And Fei Fei, the Daughter, brought up as a “boy” by her activist father, grapples with gender identity in the aftermath of the Tiananmen Square massacre.

Awash in the tides of societal upheaval, Ah Xue, Mimosa, and Fei Fei are all driven by the instinct to survive, weathering hardship that splinters the boundary between the personal and the political. For readers of sweeping upmarket book club fiction like Pachinko and Homegoing, Nothing to My Name is a braided history of suffering and dignity, of loss and reckoning, and of the unexpected joy that sustains family bonds.

Genres: Historical Fiction, China, Fiction, Literary Fiction, Asia, Asian Literature, Audiobook

400 pages, Hardcover

First published June 23, 2026

Reviews

[Moonkiszt · Rating 3 out of 5]

Nothing to My Name tracks a family through the traumas of their women - with a focus of the younger, latest generation looking back and earnestly trying to parse out the meaning of life. The removal of each filter brings out new insight on how the echoes of times and generations past are often felt and heard in present day choices and actions.

This was a read that provoked much thought on ancestors and generations of the past - especially through the lens of the mothers, grandmothers, sisters, daughters, aunts, and female other family members. So often these may be almost strangers but because of familial grapevine communication know more of our secrets than those closest to us do.

There was also a Tea Girl of Hummingbird Lane (Lisa See) feel to this read for me - generations that feel and act on what previous ones carried but never unfolded until dire crisis, and sometimes not even then.

I look forward to more from Kangkang Kovacs.

*A sincere thank you to Kangkang Kovacs, Viking Penguin | Viking, and NetGalley for an ARC to read and review independently.* #NothingtoMyName #Netgalley 26|52:40b

[Aggie · Rating 3 out of 5]

3.5 Stars. Nothing to My Name is a sweeping, multi-generational family saga that follows three generations of Chinese women as they navigate the country's most turbulent modern upheavals. Inspired by the author's own family history, this debut novel braids together the voices of a grandmother, mother, and daughter surviving political storms—from the 1948 Communist Revolution to the 1989 Tiananmen Square protests—to explore identity, inherited trauma, and the unbreakable bonds of motherhood.

Critics frequently laud the novel’s epic scale and emotional depth, drawing comparisons to landmark historical fiction like Min Jin Lee’s Pachinko and Yaa Gyasi’s Homegoing.

The ending was unforgettable. The three women finally laid bare their deep secrets and feelings towards healing.

[Jessica Brainard]

4.5/5 – A Tender, Sweeping Saga of Resilience Across a Century of Chinese TurmoilKangkang Li Kovacs delivers a stunning debut with Nothing to My Name, a multi-generational family saga that braids the lives of three remarkable women against the backdrop of modern China's most seismic upheavals. If you're drawn to epic yet intimate historical fiction like Pachinko or Homegoing, this novel is an absolute must-read—poignant, unflinching, and deeply humane.

The story unfolds across decades, beginning in 1948 in the fishing village of Zhoushan. Twelve-year-old Ah Xue observes her mother's quiet labor combing hair for wealthy clients as civil war and the Communist revolution loom. Her daughter Mimosa then navigates the shadows of parental trauma amid the Cultural Revolution's chaos. Finally, granddaughter Fei—raised as a boy by her activist father—confronts identity, loss, and survival in the wake of the 1989 Tiananmen Square events. Through these intertwined fates, Kovacs illuminates how ordinary women endure history's "tsunamis," bound by love, trauma, and an unbreakable will to persist.

What shines brightest is the author's remarkable tenderness in portraying trauma without sensationalism. Kovacs, drawing from her own family history and roots in Nanchang, China, crafts characters who feel achingly real: flawed, contradictory, and profoundly resilient. Ah Xue's quiet strength, Mimosa's fractured upbringing, and Fei's complex search for self create a rich emotional tapestry. The prose is elegant and immersive, blending the personal with the political in ways that never feel didactic. Moments of everyday beauty—hair-combing rituals, familial silences, small acts of defiance—stand in powerful contrast to the larger forces of revolution, upheaval, and suppression.The novel excels at exploring the enduring ripples of history on women's lives: the search for stability amid disorder, the weight of unspoken secrets, and the often messy nature of mother-daughter bonds. While some sections move with deliberate slowness to honor the weight of memory and survival, the pacing ultimately serves the story's depth, building to quietly devastating and hopeful culminations.As a debut from a writer who transitioned from nuclear physics and teaching to MFA-trained fiction, Nothing to My Name announces Kovacs as a major new voice in literary fiction. At around 400 pages, it feels expansive yet tightly focused on the female experience often sidelined in grand historical narratives.If there's any quibble, it's that the scope occasionally demands patience as threads weave together, but the payoff is immensely rewarding. This is the kind of book that lingers—haunting in its honesty, uplifting in its celebration of quiet dignity.Highly recommended for book clubs and readers seeking sweeping yet character-driven stories. Nothing to My Name is a beautiful testament to the women who survive what history throws at them, emerging with stories that demand to be told. Look for it in June 2026—it's destined to be one of the standout debuts of the year.

[Bethel Clark · Rating 4 out of 5]

4.5 ⭐️

I love a multigenerational family saga and this one is no exception to that. It was a quiet yet profound novel. True depth doesn’t need to shout to bring attention to its importance. This book explored the strengths of three women who lived through awful times. It also doesn’t shy away from what those awful times costs them and how it changed them. It documents a part of history and the lives of people not often acknowledged in historical fiction. I highly recommend this one!

[Emma · Rating 5 out of 5]

If I could read one thing for the rest of my life, it's family sagas. Nothing to My Name differed from a lot I've read in recent years in that it's largely told through the eyes of children, the daughters. I don't think anything is lost in terms of historical context (and as it's set in China during pivotal times, there is loads of historical context) and I think it works really well. The story of all three girls is told separately first but eventually, inevitably, intertwines completely seamlessly and you get to understand particular Ah Xhu and Mimosa throughout their lives.

I really, really, really enjoyed this. Beautifully written, a great debut.

Thank you to the publisher and author for the ARC.

[Helen · Rating 3 out of 5]

Nothing To My Name is a story about three generations of women spanning one hundred years. These women demonstrated strength in facing poverty, government oppression and gender stereotypes. This historical fiction story addresses the Communist and Cultural Revolution along with the Tiananmen Square Massacre.
Grandmother, mother and daughter are the subjects whose lives and relationships are explored in this novel. I enjoyed learning about each character with their individual personalities and struggles over the generations. I did find the chapter jumping from generation to generation a bit confusing at times. Overall I learned a lot about Chinese history and cultural differences and the characters did hold my interest with their life experiences.

[Ellie Moon · Rating 5 out of 5]

Thank you to NetGalley and Bloomsbury Publishing for providing me with an ARC of this book. All opinions are my own.

“Nothing to My Name” is at the same time a sweeping generational epic and an intimate portrayal of the lives of three ordinary women. Spanning one hundred years of Chinese history, the novel deftly navigates historical points while remaining grounded in the everyday lives of the women the story is centred around.
I enjoyed the story of Ah Xue the most, but young Fei was also a well-written and complex character despite being a small child for the majority of the story. I’ve read quite a few novels about the Cultural Revolution and I found this one to be really well done, hitting on some topics that I hadn’t read about elsewhere. Kovacs is an excellent writer, portraying both small details and deep emotions with nuance and painstaking detail. This is an incredible debut. I enjoyed reading this book immensely and will continue to follow the author and her future work.

[Kenzie | kenzienoelle.reads · Rating 3 out of 5]

From the synopsis of the book, this should have been a book for me! Historical fiction following three generations of women in China. Showcasing and centering women stories.

But I struggled with this one. I have a feeling the writing was beautiful, but maybe just not for me. It read more like vignettes strung together than a propulsive story and I just couldn’t get invested. Very character driven which I do love but I needed a little something more to keep me intrigued.

A miss for me as a whole but hopefully it finds its audience!

Thank you Viking for the gifted book!

[Cheyenne · Rating 4 out of 5]

3.75

[Sam Hann · Rating 4 out of 5]

4.25 / 5

a beautiful written, slow burn that centers three generations of Chinese women. Honored to have reviewed some of this in the beginning stages. Well done, Kangkang!

[Amy · Rating 5 out of 5]

Between a 4/4.5!

[Laura Sanders · Rating 4 out of 5]

Nothing to My Name was a really interesting and thought-provoking read. I would probably give it somewhere between 3 and 4 stars. At times, I found it difficult to keep track of the three different timelines, and I sometimes had to stop and remind myself which generation I was following. But despite that, I really enjoyed the story and, perhaps even more, the opportunity to learn about a side of history that I have not been taught or explored much before.

What stayed with me most was following this family through generations of women and watching the small ways each one began to claim pieces of independence for herself. Yet, even as those small changes happened, so many of the same struggles continued. These women often seemed to become invisible within the families they built, absorbing their husbands' identities and allowing their own histories, dreams, and identities to fade into the background.

That made me especially interested in the youngest generation and her curiosity about these “invisible” women who came before her. As she begins searching for answers, I couldn't help but wonder how much of the struggles that continue from one generation to the next are connected to the silence surrounding these women's histories. What happens when no one tells the stories? What gets lost when women spend generations disappearing into the lives of the families they create?

The ending left me wanting more, with so many questions still haunting me. And, in a strange way, I think that works. The youngest woman is left with many of those same unanswered questions, so as a reader, I was left sitting with that uncertainty alongside her.

This wasn't a perfect read for me, but it was one that gave me a new perspective and left me thinking about the women whose stories are often overlooked, forgotten, or never told at all.

[Jeanne Riley Watson · Rating 1 out of 5]

I am very disappointed. End is terrible-nothing happens in the book. Waste of my time.

[Nadia Gustab · Rating 5 out of 5]

Brilliant debut novel, following four generations of women enduring the three most brutal chapters of Chinese history: societal upheaval following the Chinese civil war, tensions of the Cultural Revolution, and the activism and aftermath of the 1989 Tiananmen Square Massacre. Their insuppressible instinct to survive and care for their family is incredibly touching, and Kovács does an excellent job navigating Chinese history whilst remaining grounded in the women’s everyday lives and struggles for stability. The characters are incredible: raw, messy, brilliant, loving, strong, caring and alive. It explores the impact of generational trauma which lives in between lines, complexity and contradictory nature of familial love, but above all it’s the tenderness that survives through it all. It is a devastating and beautiful novel, and I am very excited for Kovacs future works.

[Deb · Rating 4 out of 5]

Nothing To My Name by Kangkang Li Kovacs

Two stories cross paths in this tale of life in China in 1948 and 1989. Ah Xue and her mother work for a wealthy client, while Feifei and her parents go through turbulent times as well.

Feifei is always called son by her father. She is a tomboy, yet female. It will take the whole story to find out why he calls her son. Ah Xue has an abbreviated childhood, as you’ll see.

It’s a complex book that takes you through the cultural changes in China with the lives of these two girls. With a satisfying conclusion, I give this book four stars and suggest it for readers interested in China during these years.

[Meghan ReadsBooks · Rating 5 out of 5]

Thank you to Viking Books for the review copy of *Nothing to My Name* by Kangkang Li Kovács.

One of my ongoing goals, both as a reader and someone who works in a bookstore, is to read more widely. I want to read outside my usual categories so I can recommend books to a wider range of readers, and I also want to keep adding to the blank spaces in my own learning.

I am, however, always going to be drawn to a family saga. If I could read one kind of book for the rest of my life, it would probably be stories that follow families across generations.

*Nothing to My Name* is a sweeping, intimate story of three generations of women set against some of the most significant and devastating periods in modern Chinese history. The story follows Ah Xue, Mimosa, and Fei at different points in their lives, beginning in 1948 and moving through the Cultural Revolution and the aftermath of the 1989 Tiananmen Square protests.

What I found especially interesting was the way much of the story is told through the eyes of children and daughters. The historical context is substantial, but the story remains grounded in the everyday lives of the women experiencing that history. We see political and social upheaval through family relationships, childhood experiences, motherhood, loss, and the ongoing struggle to create some kind of stability.

The three stories are initially told separately, but they eventually connect in a way that felt completely natural. I especially enjoyed following Ah Xue and Mimosa throughout their lives and watching the way family history, trauma, love, and silence move across generations.

The characters are complicated, flawed, loving, difficult, and very real. Kovács writes about trauma and historical violence without turning the characters into symbols of suffering. There is a lot of pain here, but also tenderness, humor, everyday beauty, and the persistence of people trying to care for one another.

I did find myself taking my time with parts of the novel, but I think the pacing fits the story. This is a book that asks you to stay with these women and their lives rather than rushing through the historical events around them.

A beautiful debut and exactly the kind of book I want to be reading more of: a family saga that expanded my understanding of a history I know less about while giving me characters I cared deeply about.

I really, really, really enjoyed this one. I will absolutely be following Kangkang Li Kovács's future work.

[Mitchell Davis · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book is the quintessential family saga that I think that everyone should read. This story takes place in China during the years of the Chinese Civil War, the Culture revolution all the way to ten years after the Tiananmen Square protests and revolution.

What follows is three generations of women and how their survived during these big government and society changes. The beginning of the book very much follows the Matriarch of the family and her granddaughter growing up immediately before the Civil War and during the lead up to the Tiananmen Square protests. What I appreciated about the way that it was set up is that these two things marked the biggest changes in Chinese society during these times.

The culture revolution part, very much highlighted how there was beak out between different communist parties that led to more issues.

This is why I adore historical fiction. Yes, you can kind of understand what was happening to a country and its citizens at the time, but when an author is able to use personal history and synthesize based on what is being shared with real events, the effect is that much more impactful!

While the history part is fascinating, what was amazing about this book is the love that each of these women felt for their children and mothers respectfully. The book was also a huge commentary, in my opinion, on masculinity in China and the repression they caused.

I will say I think that I wished that the titles of the Chapters also had the title of the woman that they were talking about. I would have also liked a map!

However, this book is an important read, and I think that when it is published, everyone should read it!

This is my first ARC review, and I had an absolute blast reading this!

[Jackie McMillan · Rating 4 out of 5]

Nothing to My Name presents the stories of three Chinese women. Initially presented in two different time periods, the story eventually coalesces and you understand you're seeing the multi-generational story of a single family of women through the eyes of Ah Xue, Mimosa and Fei. It gives you an indirect look at a hundred years of Chinese history, through the Chinese Civil War, the Cultural Revolution, the 1989 Tiananmen Square protests and massacre, and China's one-child policy by showing you the indirect impacts these things had on the lives of the women. For example, the one-child policy sees Fei encouraged to behave like a son by her father: "'Girls love to play with dolls, playhouses... all the miniature fake stuff. They waste their time with that sort of thing. And none of it is real. They are just toys. It takes a truly curious mind to look at the world around you, see how it really is'."

Unlike most dual timeline stories, I didn't find myself favouring one over the other, and rushing through the unfavoured timeline to return to the story I was invested in. The writing is also quite lovely, even poetic in places: "Ma was prone to these soliloquies. She'd always end them in a rising tone, leaving a trail of questions to hang, like tendrils, in the air." However I wasn't as keen on these analogies being repeated: "Filaments of murmur dangled in the air." Only one dangle per book please.

You get quite a good picture of the lives of Chinese women from birth, to child-rearing, midwifery, abortion, domestic violence and death through this book. I particularly liked seeing how midwives' lives changed into being baby killers with the one-child policy. While I knew it had involved abortions and forced sterilisation, what happened to full-term female babies wasn't something I'd thought much about: "To wash a girl cost twice as much as to deliver a boy. At least there was that." I doubt many policymakers think adequately about what the reality of their policies will mean in women's and girls' lives.

With thanks to NetGalley & Bloomsbury ANZ for sending me a copy to read.

[Lizzies.Little.Library · Rating 4 out of 5]

❤️MS Readathon Book Six❤️

💛Nothing to My Name by Kangkang Li Kovacs💛

Spanning four decades and three generations, Nothing to My Name follows Ah Xue, Mimosa and Fei as they navigate a China shaped by enormous political and social upheaval. The historical backdrop is fascinating, but for me, the real strength of this beautiful novel is how it keeps bringing everything back to the women at its centre. Their hopes, fears, identities and sacrifices never feel secondary to the history surrounding them.

I loved the exploration of identity and familial expectations. There are moments where love and control become difficult to separate, and where doing what is best for yourself can often feel like you are betraying the people you love. I’m sure we’ve all been there, and those contradictions made the family dynamics feel incredibly authentic and very relatable.

This isn't necessarily a light or easy read, but it is a deeply compassionate one. There is so much sadness woven through these women's stories, yet there is also an incredible determination to keep going and to build something better from whatever remains 🥺

A powerful story of women, family, survival and the complicated legacy we leave behind. Definitely one for readers who love historical fiction with a strong generational and emotional focus. Fans of Pachinko will eat this up.

Thank you so much to @bloomsburypublishing for sending me a proof copy to review. I am so grateful as always 🙏🏼

QOTD: How has your week been? What are you reading?

#nothingtomyname #kangkanglikovacs #bookreview #msreadathon

[Gerry Durisin · Rating 2 out of 5]

Nothing to My Name is a family saga focused on three generations of women, and their relationships with one another. The Grandmother, Ah Xue, witnesses the rise of the Communist Revolution while earning a meager living combing the hair of the few wealthy ladies in her small fishing village. Mimosa, the Mother, grows up in the shadow of her parents’ struggles as the growing tension of the Cultural Revolution threatens to pull their family apart. And Fei Fei, the Daughter, brought up as a “boy” by her activist father, grapples with gender identity in the aftermath of the Tiananmen Square massacre. I found the narrative often confusing, despite the date that introduced each chapter and provided a landmark, as it were, by identifying the city in which the action took place. Each of the women was identified by more than one name at different times, and it felt as though there were more than three generations included in the narrative. In her notes after the end of the novel, the author comments that one of her mentors taught her the value of subtlety, adding, "I don't think I'll ever conclude a story without asking myself, again and again, does it come together, but barely?" That subtlety, and the story's *barely* coming together in the final couple chapters, proved too much for me; coming too late, the connections among the characters no longer mattered enough, and I found myself simply glad to have reached the end.

[Sabrina · Rating 5 out of 5]

I absolutely fell in love with this beautifully written family saga by Kangkang Kovacs. This book exceeded my expectations of a historical fiction novel set during important historical periods in China, including the Chinese Cultural Revolution and the 1989 Tiananmen Square protests and massacre in Beijing. The story is told through the viewpoints of three women from the same family who are generations apart- a mother named Mimosa, a grandmother named Ah Xue, and a granddaughter named Fei. All three of these women go through hardships during their lives that are directly tied to the historical events going on around them. I found this story to be engaging and compelling, and I found it hard to put down once I began reading it. The author's writing is beautiful and there are so many deeply profound quotes in the book that made me really relate to the characters. The novel focuses on themes such as familial bonds, identity, and dealing with loss. I found all three women to be relatable and intriguing characters; I was completely immersed in their lives once I began reading. I would highly recommend this novel to anyone who loves multi generational family sagas and historical fiction books focused on women who have strong bonds with each other, as was the case with all three women in this book. I am looking forward to reading more of this author's work in the future!

Thank you to NetGalley for an ARC of this novel in exchange for an honest review.

[Kenyah The Cultivated Reader · Rating 5 out of 5]

For once, I'm having trouble writing a review because this book truly left me speechless. There is so much to love and unpack in these 400 pages that I'm not sure where to start. First, I'll say it was deeply immersive and yet unputdownable. The pacing is perfect. The dual POV and timeline jumps didn't slow the momentum, and I loved how everything came together in the end. It was a seamless intertwining of the three threads we'd been following since the beginning. The prose was also a star in this book. It is lyrical and ornate, and I highlighted plenty of lines. The inclusion of Hai Zi's poetry and song lyrics fits right in with Kovacs' style. Ah Xue, Mimosa, and FeiFei were well-developed, intriguing characters that I wanted to get to know and root for as they developed. Seeing Chinese history--specifically the Communist Revolution, the Cultural Revolution, and the student protests at Tiananmen Square--through their eyes was a poignant way to explore how gender norms have changed over time and how common people were impacted by these upheavals. The historical elements were clearly well-researched, detailed, and meaningfully depicted. I think this is a great choice for fans of Eve J. Chung and any other multigenerational family sagas, such as The Covenant of Water or Pachinko.

[Hamad Naif · Rating 5 out of 5]

Thank you NetGalley and Viking Penguin for a chance to review Nothing to My Name
by Kangkang Li Kovacs

Three generations of Chinese women. Three of history's most brutal chapters, the Communist Revolution, the Cultural Revolution, Tiananmen Square. And yet *Nothing to My Name* never turns into a history lecture. Kovacs keeps her eye on the people: Ah Xue, Mimosa, and Fei are messy and alive, surviving, loving badly, and passing their wounds down without knowing it. That's the book's quiet devastation — trauma doesn't announce itself here. It lives in silence, in distance, in the small ways people learn to hold each other at arm's length.

The three-voice structure moves across time but holds together, a single thread stitched through different hands. There's a tenderness in Kovacs' prose that never softens into sentimentality. Fei's storyline carries particular weight; a child raised as a boy in the shadow of 1989, navigating politics and identity at once and it earns every page.

Rooted in the author's own family history, the novel reads like excavation: deliberate, personal, searching. It's heavy in the way literary fiction should be — not oppressive, but the kind of weight that lingers.

[Lyon.Brit.andthebookshelf · Rating 5 out of 5]

Book Report: Nothing to My Name by Kangkang Li Kovac

A sweeping…deeply moving family saga that follows three generations of women as they navigate love… loss…survival and the relentless tides of history. Through shifting perspectives and decades of change…their stories become beautifully intertwined in ways that feel both intimate and unforgettable.

For the life of me…I can't remember which author first put this stunning debut on my radar but the moment I read the synopsis I knew I had to pick it up. I started with my egalley…then once I found my footing with the alternating timelines and perspectives…I happily switched between the audiobook during the day and my ecopy at night.

I loved getting to spend time with these characters. Life is so complex and I was especially moved by the way Kangkang Li Kovacs writes suffering alongside joy…never losing sight of resilience or the quiet bonds that carry us through. There were so many moments that had me reflecting long after I turned the page.

A beautiful debut and one that has me eagerly waiting to see what this author writes next.

Thank you Viking for the ecopy

Releases 6/23

Follow me on Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/Lyon.brit.A...

[Hana · Rating 3 out of 5]

At moments horrendously sad, others somewhat detached, I was a bit all over the place with this one. I'm not overly familiar with Chinese history so when events of protests/movements were written about, I had nothing to call back on in my memory. Taking it as it was though, it was interesting reading up on them and I feel like I learnt a lot.

The moments of sadness were really just so heart-wrenching. Having to read some of these moments in public in front of other people was too much so I don't recommend taking it on a casual lunch at a cafe - much regrets!

I felt detached from the overall nature of this book. Understandably the cultural aspects (which are acknowledged) but also a bit of the characters as well. There were certain nuances and behaviour that I didn't connect with and although there were parts of the characters stories that I thoroughly enjoyed, in moments where things weren't further explained or jumped to a different timeline made me feel almost numb to what they were experiencing.

A lot of this is user error, it took me way too long to finish purely because I just didn't have the capacity to read it any faster so take that into consideration as well. The parts I liked, I loved! The parts I didn't, I saw their importance but kept it pushing.

[Firetruckmama · Rating 3 out of 5]

I received an eARC of this book from NetGalley and the publisher, for which I thank them.

“Nothing to My Name” is by Kangkang Kovacs. I greatly enjoy multi-generational novels and this one hit some pretty high notes. This book is drawn from the author’s own family history, so it felt “real” a number of times. Three women (Ah Xue in 1948 when the Civil War loomed, her daughter, Mimosa, during the chaos of the Cultural Revolution, and then, granddaughter Fei in 1989 around the time of the Tiananmen Square events) are followed in this story. It does take a while for the stories to all tie together, so be patient. My one complaint is that the women are young when they are being followed, so sometimes one has to realize that their observations and through the eyes of younger people, not adults. I do wish that I’d had a better grasp of Chinese history because my limited knowledge resulted in a number of pauses to look things up on the Internet. Overall, if you like multi-generational stories, this might be one to read.

[Frances · Rating 4 out of 5]

3.5 stars rounded up. Thank you to the publishers for the copy of Nothing to My Name in exchange for a review.

Nothing to My Name is a beautifully written multigenerational family tale, following three generations of women in one family. It was slow and sweeping, and took time to build up each character, their personalities and details of their lives, while it let you connect the dots on how one event influenced another, and observe how family patterns were repeated or broken over time.

I learned a fair bit on Chinese political history while reading this novel, however, some of that I have to attribute to outside research as many of the historical events are more peripheral to the plot. Ah Xue's story was what drew me in and kept me reading, and while I enjoyed FeiFeis story I was surprised how little of a role her gender identity played in her story. The blurb made it seem like this would be a significant portion of her story but ultimately it was minor outside details and a brief moment of introspection toward the end of the novel. I also felt like Mimosas story was quite sidelined, as she only appeared towards the very end.

Overall, I found this book to be a good work of literary fiction, not quite what I had initially expected, but very interesting, the writing was nice, and I'm glad I had a chance to pick it up.

[Kathleen Gray · Rating 4 out of 5]

Three generation of women in China. Ah Xue, Mimosa and Fei each tell the story in this multiple time line story that winds through post WWII Chinese history (although it ends in 1998). It can be a bit confusing at times to keep it all straight, especially since various characters are referred to as The Mother. This isn't a happy story but rather one of struggles. Ah Xue dealt with the devastation of the PLA coming through as well as her own troubles at age 14. Mimosa's husband is active in politics. Fei, a bright kid, copes with her parent's disintegrating marriage and her own issues. Because Fei's father refers to her as his son (and her mother calls her pup), there was indeed some confusion about her gender but it ultimately becomes clear that her father wanted a son and so there you have it. It's a big book that take on many issues and can be slow in spots but ultimately it's a rewarding look at life. Thanks to the publisher for the ARC. A worthy read.

[Irina · Rating 2 out of 5]

There were some interesting parts in this novel, some very confusing and some totally boring.
The most frustrating was that it seems like the author assumed readers already know the historical background of China? Or was the book written primarily for an audience familiar with modern Chinese history? I had no idea what the events mentioned in the book were! Actually they weren’t even mentioned as such! You sense that something quite serious was happening but no explanation was given. At all! None!
Difficult names, often the same person referred to my different names - very confusing!
Some dialogs were written with an odd punctuation; you only had to guess who was saying what.
Strange structure of the story as well - more than half through it and you still have no clue how two parts of it are linked.
Well… 2 stars it is.
I don’t think I’ll be in a hurry to read any more novels by this author (if any more happen)

[Janine · Rating 5 out of 5]

A multigenerational story spanning forty years about resilience and survival in the face of societal upheaval.

Three women - Ah Xue (Grandmother) witnesses the rise of Communism; Mimosa (the Mother) navigates the Cultural Revolution; Fei Fei (the Daughter) raised as a boy by her activist father struggles with gender identity in the aftermath of Tiananmen Square in 1989. All are driven to survive and face immense trauma in the process though shored up by family bonds.

The book is nicely written. The story is deep. It’s perfect for our times showing how a culture can destroys itself leaving people trying to survive this deeply traumatized but hopeful to find stability in disorder so their survival will not have been in vain.

My thanks to NetGalley and Viking for allowing me access to this ARC.