A profound mystery is at the heart of this magnificent new novel by Yiyun Li, "o
ne of America's best young novelists" ("Newsweek") and the celebrated author of
"The Vagrants, "winner of the Hemingway Foundation/PEN Award. Moving back and fo
rth in time, between America today and China in the 1990s, "Kinder Than Solitude
" is the story of three people whose lives are changed by a murder one of them m
ay have committed. As one of the three observes, "Even the most innocent person,
when cornered, is capable of a heartless crime."
When Moran, Ruyu, and Boyang
were young, they were involved in a mysterious incident in which a friend of th
eirs was poisoned. Grown up, the three friends are separated by distance and per
sonal estrangement. Moran and Ruyu live in the United States, Boyang in China; a
ll three are haunted by what really happened in their youth, and by doubt about
themselves. In California, Ruyu helps a local woman care for her family and home
, avoiding entanglements, as she has done all her life. In Wisconsin, Moran visi
ts her ex-husband, whose kindness once overcame her flight into solitude. In Bei
jing, Boyang struggles to deal with an inability to love, and with the outcome o
f what happened among the three friends twenty years before.
Brilliantly writt
en, a breathtaking page-turner, "Kinder Than Solitude "resonates with provocativ
e observations about human nature and life. In mesmerizing prose, and with profo
und insight, Yiyun Li unfolds this remarkable story, even as she explores the im
pact of personality and the past on the shape of a person's present and future.
