A Free Life, Ha Jin
A Free Life, Ha Jin
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A Free Life

Author: Ha Jin

Narrator: Jaeson Ma

Unabridged: 21 hr 50 min

Format: Digital Audiobook Download

Published: 10/30/2007

Synopsis

Meet the Wu family—father Nan, mother Pingping, and son Taotao. They are arranging to fully sever ties with China in the aftermath of the 1989 massacre at Tiananmen Square, and to begin a new, free life in the United States. At first, their future seems well-assured. But after the fallout from Tiananmen, Nan's disillusionment turns him toward his first love, poetry. Leaving his studies, he takes on a variety of menial jobs as Pingping works for a wealthy widow as a cook and housekeeper. As Pingping and Taotao slowly adjust to American life, Nan still feels a strange attachment to his homeland, though he violently disagrees with Communist policy. But severing all ties—including his love for a woman who rejected him in his youth—proves to be more difficult than he could have ever imagined.

About Ha Jin

Ha Jin left his native China in 1985 to attend Brandeis University. He is the author of eight novels, four story collections, a book of essays, and six books of poetry. He received the National Book Award, two PEN/Faulkner Awards, the PEN/Hemingway Award, the Asian American Literary Award, and the Flannery O’Connor Award, among others. His novel War Trash was a finalist for the Pulitzer Prize. In 2014 he was elected to the American Academy of Arts and Letters. He is director of the creative writing program at Boston University.

About Jaeson Ma

Jaeson Ma is the son of two immigrant parents from China. A classically trained, New York-based theater actor who has appeared on Broadway, Off Broadway, and in numerous regional theaters, he has done extensive work in voice-over, specializing in Asian accents. He has provided voices for Vietnamese, Thai, and Japanese subjects for such shows as ABC News, Primetime Live, and 20/20.

Reviews

Goodreads review by Ron on November 27, 2013

Ha Jin's success in the United States has been an extraordinary rebuttal to Yeats's claim that "no man can think or write with music and vigor except in his mother tongue." An immigrant from China who survived the Cultural Revolution and almost six years in the People's Liberation Army, Jin had been......more

Goodreads review by Zinta on January 05, 2009

I had the privilege of meeting Ha Jin when he visited Kalamazoo College some years ago, when I still worked there in media relations, and so when his name came up again - this time as an author to read in a new bookclub I have joined at my new workplace - I took up his newest novel, "A Free Life," w......more

Goodreads review by Ruthiella on May 17, 2017

The main character, Wu Nan, mentions reading Naipaul’s A House for Mr. Biswas in this novel about a Chinese immigrant family’s search for the “American Dream” in the late 20th century. The books are similar in that they are slow moving accounts of an outsider looking to find permanence and security......more

Goodreads review by Nancy on March 28, 2008

I've read several books by Ha Jin, and this was the first time I was conscious of reading English as a Second Language. That's not actually a complaint. The story is about a Chinese man, a poet, who brings his family to the United States to pursue the American dream. The occasionally jarring idioms......more

Quotes

“Striking…Jin’s language has ripened into something extraordinary.” The Washington Post

“A leisurely, generous tale…As vast and unbounded as the brave and overwhelming new world it describes.” Boston Globe

“Ha Jin writes of sacrifice, isolation, and valor with uncommon perception…Capacious, pointillistic, empathic, and tender, Ha Jin’s tale of one immigrant family’s odyssey in America affirms humankind’s essential mission, to honor life.” Booklist (starred review)

“A Free Life offers the greatest reward to those who read with patience and in quiet contemplation, absorbing the author’s passion for language.” Bookmarks Magazine

Awards

  • New York Times Book Review 100 Notable Books
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