Shanghai Baby

...opens this semi-autobiographical work of fiction by a young chinese writer, the first of a new wave of young female 'Glam lit' writers to achieve mainstream success. Coco, the books main character, is a Shanghai cafe waitress full of enthusiasm for life and impatient to discover who she really is. She falls in love with a young man, Tian Tian, for whom she feels tenderness and love but who is reclusive and impotent, and an occasional user of drugs. Despite her parents objections Coco moves in with him, leaves her job and throws herself into writing a novel. Shortly afterwards she meets Mark, a dashing and sensual foreign businessman; the tow are uncontrollably attracted and begin a highly charged, physical affair. The book then turns to the real subject: the conflicted feelings involved in love and passion; the battle between body and soul. Tom between two lovers, and tormented by her deceit, her unfinished novel and her entangled feelings Coco starts to break down. As her foreign lover prepares to return home she spends all her time with him, more passionate and unbridled than ever, despite her growing concern for Tian Tian. One Morning, not long after Mark's departure, she finds Tian Tian dead next to her in bed. Abandoned in a city of vanity and desire, the book ends as Coco musters the courage to face life, and puts the finishing touches to her first, semi-autobiographical novel, which reflects her unique and very personal attitude to her lovers memory.

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