Set in Japanese-occupied Manchuria in the 1930s, this book is timeless and haunting, a shocking tale of love and war reflected in the age-old game of go. An exquisite novel, in the unusual French-Chinese tradition of 'Balzac And The Little Chinese Seamstress', it is a bestseller in France and was winner of the Prix Goncourt des Lyceens.
In the Place of a Thousand Winds, snow falls as a sixteen-year-old Chinese girl beats all-comers at the game of go. One of her opponents is, unknown to her, a young Japanese officer of the occupying power, rigidly militaristic, imbued with the imperial ethic, but far from home and intrigued by this young opponent who plays like a man.
Their encounters are like the game itself, restrained, subtle, surprisingly fierce. But as their two stories unfold, and some Chinese try to ignore their oppressors, while others are caught up in dangerous resistance, the Japanese army moves inexorably through their huge land, in the vanguard of a greater war, leaving blood and destruction in its wake.
Shan Sa's novel has a wonderful directness and deceptive simplicity that catches the reader by the throat, and makes the cruelty and tragedy of its outcome all the more shocking.
