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About Stories Of The Sahara
Product Description "Hypnotic . . . A record of one person's fierce refusal to follow a path laid down for her by the rest of the world." Paris Review Best Books of the YearThe 15-million copy bestselling travelogue-memoir from legendary Taiwanese author Sanmao, translated into English for the very first time.Leafing through the pages of National Geographic as a young girl growing up in Taiwan, Sanmao became enchanted by the infinite and wonderous landscape of the Sahara. Years later, in 1974, she sets out for the Spanish desert territory of El Aaiún in hopes of becoming the first female explorer to cross the hauntingly beautiful expanse. Her boyfriend José would have to wait, or join her. He packs his things, leaves Madrid, and asks Sanmao to marry him. As Sanmao settles in to married life alongside the indigenous people of the Western Sahara, she is confronted by a culture and desert lifestyle that both captivate and confound her. Drawn in by the mystery of such desolate lands but disappointed by the drawl of life as a perpetual outsider, Sanmao begins to wonder if the desert is what she imagined it to be, and if her insatiably curious heart can beat forever in just one place. Stories of the Sahara is a breathtaking exploration of the adventures―and misadventures―of untamable wanderlust. Sanmao illuminates the joys of fearless independence and the pains of yearning for elsewhere, culminating in a stunning mosaic of love and loneliness in a deeply human search for meaning and contentment. Review "A hypnotic meditation on love and loneliness in a foreign place. Writing with frankness and vulnerability, Sanmao’s constant questioning of her insecurities and flaws is remarkably human, and nothing remains beyond the boundaries of her probing eye . . . Mike Fu’s gorgeous translation brings to live Sanmao’s evocative descriptions of the Sahrawi communities in which she lives, along with her wit and her gift for capturing life’s absurdities. Stories of the Sahara is a record of one person’s fierce refusal to follow a path laid down for her by the rest of the world, but it is also a celebration of the complexities of being an outsider, and ultimately, an ode to freedom." - The Paris Review, Best Books of the Year"Stories of the Sahara has endured for generations of young Taiwanese and Chinese women yearning for independence from conservative social norms . . . Her prose, which oscillates between memoir and fiction, has a laconic elegance that echoes the Beat poets. It can also be breezy, a remarkable quality at a time when her homeland, Taiwan, was under martial law." - The New York Times"Marvelous . . . Sanmao is a meticulous observer and affecting raconteur. Her voice speaks from the page, as if written yesterday rather than almost 50 years ago―an effect, it must be admitted, which might in part be an artifact of the earnest translation by Mike Fu . . . If any work could be described as having been lovingly translated, it is this one." - Asian Review of Books"Available in English for the first time, these semiautobiographical stories by a cherished Taiwanese writer . . . weave the quotidian and the historical into a single narrative: the wedding of a child bride; legends of evil spirits, heard while camping at night; rising hostility to both Spanish rule and the looming influence of Morocco." - The New Yorker"Stories of the Sahara mark[s] the beginning of Sanmao’s glorious, prodigious literary career … Beyond her infectious energy, Sanmao reveals keen insight, astute self-awareness, and the rare glimpses of unsettled loneliness." - Christian Science Monitor"[Sanmao’s life] was a blueprint for how legends are born . . . She was adventurous and a home-body, brave and insecure, funny and serious." - PopFam"A role model far ahead of her time . . . Now, mainland-born and Taiwanese-raised Sanmao is taking her rightful place in the pantheon of female travel writers with the English-language publication of Stories of the Sahara . . .
