Two Trees Make a Forest: On Memory, Migration and Taiwan

Lee, Jessica J.

ISBN 10: 0349011044 / ISBN 13: 9780349011042

Published by Virago, 2020

About this Item

Gut/Very good: Buch bzw. Schutzumschlag mit wenigen Gebrauchsspuren an Einband, Schutzumschlag oder Seiten. / Describes a book or dust jacket that does show some signs of wear on either the binding, dust jacket or pages.

Seller Inventory # M00349011044-V

Bibliographic Details

• Title: Two Trees Make a Forest: On Memory, Migration and Taiwan
• Publisher: Virago
• Publication Date: 2020
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 0349011044
• ISBN 13: 9780349011042
• Binding: Soft cover
• Condition: very good

About this title

Synopsis

I have learned many words for 'island': isle, atoll, eyot, islet, or skerry. They exist in archipelagos or alone, and always, by definition, I have understood them by their relation to water. But the Chinese word for island knows nothing of water. For a civilisation grown inland from the sea, the vastness of mountains was a better analogue: (dao, 'island') built from the relationship between earth and sky.

Between tectonic plates and conflicting cultures, Taiwan is an island of extremes: high mountains, exposed flatlands, thick forests. After unearthing a hidden memoir of her grandfather's life, written on the cusp of his total memory loss, Jessica J Lee hunts his story, in parallel with exploring Taiwan, hoping to understand the quakes that brought her family from China, to Taiwan and Canada, and the ways in which our human stories are interlaced with geographical forces. Part-nature writing, part-biography, Two Trees Make a Forest traces the natural and human stories that shaped an island and a family.