The Fortunes - Rilegato

“The book’s scope is impressive, but what’s even more staggering is the utter intimacy and honesty of each character’s introspection. More extraordinary still is the depth and the texture created by the juxtaposition of different eras, making for a story not just of any one person but of hundreds of years and tens of millions of people. Davies (The Welsh Girl) has created a brilliant, absorbing masterpiece.” – Publishers Weekly, *starred* review "A four-part suite of astute, lyrical, and often poignant stories poses incisive questions about what changes—and what does not—when people from another culture become Americans. You could, if you wished, refer to this blend of historically inspired narratives as The Birth of a Chinese-American Nation, as Davies (The Welsh Girl, 2007, etc.) encompasses whole eras of history, transition, and even consciousness...Davies' nuanced contemplation of how America has affected the Chinese (and vice versa) forces the reader to confront what is both singular and similar about all cross-cultural transactions." – Kirkus Reviews  "Panoramic in scope yet intimate in detail, The Fortunes might be the most honest, unflinching, cathartically biting novel I've read about the Chinese American experience. It asks the big questions about identity and history that every American needs to ask in the 21st century." – Celeste Ng, author of  Everything I Never Told You "Only a writer as gifted as Peter Ho Davies could capture the full weight of a century’s history with such an extraordinary lightness of touch. In his deft hands the dust falls away from a collection of hoary images—the building of the transcontinental railroad, the steaming laundry in Chinatown, the Dragon Lady flickering onscreen—revealing Chinese-American lives and desires in all their freshness, intensity, contradictoriness, and depth. Buoyant yet profound, unsentimental yet affecting, and above all beautifully written, The Fortunes reimagines in thrilling ways what the multi-generational immigrant novel can be." – Sarah Shun-lien Bynum, author of Madeleine Is Sleeping and Ms. Hempel Chronicles “The Fortunes is wonderfully lucid and sharply imagined. From the very first page, the people in this novel rise from history and we root for them, empathizing with them, as they make their way in the early American West and beyond.  It was so easy to be lost in the story, to walk with them for a while, loving and longing and grieving with them. Readers will be richer for it.” – Jesmyn Ward, author of Salvage the Bones, Men We Reaped, and Where the Line Bleeds "TheFortunes is a genre bender, unique in conception and rich in resonance.  It combines fiction with history and myth and depicts a different kind of America, one produced by the mingling of races and cultures.  This book illuminates an obscure side of the immigrant experience." – Ha Jin, author of A Map of Betrayal, Waiting, and others “Not to be missed...Using both real and fictional figures in Chinese American history, Ho Davies has created a masterful novel about what it is to feel like an outsider in the place you call home. It is also the story of America, told through the eyes of her immigrants.” – The Bookseller (UK), Editor’s Choice

"Panoramic in scope yet intimate in detail, The Fortunes might be the most honest, unflinching, cathartically biting novel I've read about Chinese American experience. It asks the big questions about identity and history that every American needs to ask in the 21st century." – Celeste Ng, author of  Everything I Never Told You "TheFortunes is a genre bender, unique in conception and rich in resonance.  It combines fiction with history and myth and depicts a different kind of America, one produced by the mingling of races and cultures.  This book illuminates an obscure side of the immigrant experience." – Ha Jin, author of A Map of Betrayal, Waiting, and others “Not to be missed...Using both real and fictional figures in Chinese American history, Ho Davies has created a masterful novel about what it is to feel like an outsider in the place you call home. It is also the story of America, told through the eyes of her immigrants.” – The Bookseller (UK), Editor’s Choice

"Panoramic in scope yet intimate in detail, The Fortunes might be the most honest, unflinching, cathartically biting novel I've read about the Chinese American experience. It asks the big questions about identity and history that every American needs to ask in the 21st century." – Celeste Ng, author of  Everything I Never Told You "Only a writer as gifted as Peter Ho Davies could capture the full weight of a century’s history with such an extraordinary lightness of touch. In his deft hands the dust falls away from a collection of hoary images—the building of the transcontinental railroad, the steaming laundry in Chinatown, the Dragon Lady flickering onscreen—revealing Chinese-American lives and desires in all their freshness, intensity, contradictoriness, and depth. Buoyant yet profound, unsentimental yet affecting, and above all beautifully written, The Fortunes reimagines in thrilling ways what the multi-generational immigrant novel can be." – Sarah Shun-lien Bynum, author of Madeleine Is Sleeping and Ms. Hempel Chronicles “The Fortunes is wonderfully lucid and sharply imagined. From the very first page, the people in this novel rise from history and we root for them, empathizing with them, as they make their way in the early American West and beyond.  It was so easy to be lost in the story, to walk with them for a while, loving and longing and grieving with them. Readers will be richer for it.” – Jesmyn Ward, author of Salvage the Bones, Men We Reaped, and Where the Line Bleeds "TheFortunes is a genre bender, unique in conception and rich in resonance.  It combines fiction with history and myth and depicts a different kind of America, one produced by the mingling of races and cultures.  This book illuminates an obscure side of the immigrant experience." – Ha Jin, author of A Map of Betrayal, Waiting, and others “Not to be missed...Using both real and fictional figures in Chinese American history, Ho Davies has created a masterful novel about what it is to feel like an outsider in the place you call home. It is also the story of America, told through the eyes of her immigrants.” – The Bookseller (UK), Editor’s Choice

Praise for THE WELSH GIRL: “Beautifully conjures a place and its people, in an extraordinary time . . . a rare gem.”—Claire Messud “A beautiful, ambitious novel that takes the reader into the most personal corner of war. It is emotionally resonant and perfectly rendered.”—Ann Patchett "A memorable writer of sinewy intelligence and rare grace." -- David Mitchell “An ambitious, layered meditation on what it means to be from a particular place . . . Ideas do more than gird the novel’s absorbing world; they animate it. Davies’s achievement is significant.” -- Jennifer Egan The New York Times Book Review “If you loved The English Patient, there’s probably a place in your heart for The Welsh Girl . . .evocative.” USA Today "Peter Ho Davies, whose short stories over the past decade have demonstrated his quicksilver brilliance with the material of ordinary lives, has at last taken the plunge and produced a novel. Sentence by sentence, character by character, scene by scene, it's one of the best of the winter so far." -- Alan Cheuse The Chicago Tribune “Davies’s characters are marvelously nuanced.” The Los Angeles Times "In this skilled, beautifully empathic novel, the intersection of English troops, German POWs, and Welsh families with their flocks yields surprising insights into what it means to have a territory. Peter Ho Davies is a wonderful writer." -- Andrea Barrett

Praise for THE WELSH GIRL: “A beautiful, ambitious novel that takes the reader into the most personal corner of war. It is emotionally resonant and perfectly rendered.”—Ann Patchett "A memorable writer of sinewy intelligence and rare grace." -- David Mitchell “An ambitious, layered meditation on what it means to be from a particular place . . . Ideas do more than gird the novel’s absorbing world; they animate it. Davies’s achievement is significant.” -- Jennifer Egan The New York Times Book Review “If you loved The English Patient, there’s probably a place in your heart for The Welsh Girl . . .evocative.” USA Today "Peter Ho Davies, whose short stories over the past decade have demonstrated his quicksilver brilliance with the material of ordinary lives, has at last taken the plunge and produced a novel. Sentence by sentence, character by character, scene by scene, it's one of the best of the winter so far." -- Alan Cheuse The Chicago Tribune

Praise for The Fortunes
 
“The Fortunes is wonderfully lucid and sharply imagined. From the very first page, the people in this novel rise from history and we root for them, empathizing with them, as they make their way in the early American West and beyond. It was so easy to be lost in the story, to walk with them for a while, loving and longing and grieving with them. Readers will be richer for it.”
—Jesmyn Ward, author of Salvage the Bones
 
“Only a writer as gifted as Peter Ho Davies could capture the full weight of a century’s history with such an extraordinary lightness of touch. In his deft hands the dust falls away from a collection of hoary images—the building of the transcontinental railroad, the steaming laundry in Chinatown, the Dragon Lady flickering onscreen—revealing Chinese-American lives and desires in all their freshness, intensity, contradictoriness, and depth. Buoyant yet profound, unsentimental yet affecting, and above all beautifully written, The Fortunes reimagines in thrilling ways what the multigenerational immigrant novel can be.”—Sarah Shun-lien Bynum, author of Ms. Hempel Chronicles
 
“Panoramic in scope yet intimate in detail, The Fortunes might be the most honest, unflinching, cathartically biting novel I’ve read about the Chinese-American experience. It asks the big questions about identity and history that every American needs to ask in the twenty-first century.”—Celeste Ng, author of Everything I Never Told You
“The Fortunes is a genre bender, unique in conception and rich in resonance. It combines fiction with history and myth and depicts a different kind of America, one produced by the mingling of races and cultures. This book illuminates an obscure side of the immigrant experience.”—Ha Jin, author of A Map of Betrayal