Propelled by a shrewd intelligence, an extraordinary persistence, and a friendship with the imperial heir, Wu rose through the ranks to become the first Empress of China. And yet, from the moment of her death to the present day, her name has been sullied, her story distorted, and her memoirs obliter[...]
As the Japanese military invades 1930s Manchuria, a young girl approaches her own sexual coming of age. Drawn into a complex triangle with two boys, she distracts herself from the onslaught of adulthood by playing the game of go with strangers in a public square--and yet the force of desire, like th[...]