Literary Fiction · MelancholicFor eighteen years, a Chinese army doctor tries to divorce his village wife so he can marry a nurse
Waiting
by Ha Jin
Every year an army doctor goes to court to divorce his village wife, and every year something stops it
Lin Kong is an army doctor in northeast China. His parents arranged his marriage to Shuyu, a village woman he does not love, and she raises their daughter and looks after his parents in Goose Village while he works in Muji City. Lin falls in love with Manna Wu, a nurse at his hospital, and decides he must divorce Shuyu. Each year he goes home and goes with Shuyu to the courthouse, and each year Shuyu agrees but something stops the divorce at the last moment.
More about this book
Who
Lin Kong, an army doctor, his wife Shuyu, the nurse Manna Wu and their daughter Hua.
World
Northeast China from 1963 to 1985, moving between Muji City and the village of Goose Village.
What makes it different
Ha Jin based it on a true story his wife told him, about an army doctor who waited eighteen years to divorce so that he could marry a nurse.
Feel
Quiet and sad. It won the 1999 National Book Award for Fiction and the PEN/Faulkner Award.
Page count and cover shown for: Selected edition
Behind the book
Ha Jin based the novel on a true story his wife told him. On a visit to her family at an army hospital in China, he heard of an army doctor who waited eighteen years to divorce so he could marry a nurse who was a longtime friend.
Source: Wikipedia
Further reading
- WaitingWikipedia