A poignant and evocative read. Absolutely enjoyed this book for the slow burn it gave. It takes the reader to a time long gone, and showcases a very different world. An excellent read!

Brutal, poignant, explicit--Ling's epic, now translated into English, tells a unique tale of a Chinese woman during WWII, all through the eyes of the three soldiers who loved her (as friend, lover, and father), who they wait in the afterlife for. The story is so heart-breaking and beautiful all at once, but the part of the book that spoke to me most was how genuine a glimpse we get into the Chinese experience during and after it'd been occupied by Japan. It was eye-opening, at times graphic, but you never lose the sense of that TIME, or the impact it had on the characters, no matter where they came from. And that's all I'll say because I don't want to ruin it.

An important read!

This book encompasses a world of information: China under Japanese imperialism, Chinese life, Chinese family customs, poverty in Chinese villages, Chinese tea plantations, American missionaries in China, American troops in China prior to and following the bombing of Pearl Harbor and the Japanese invasion – to name a few. And then after the war, the advent of communism.

The story involves a Chinese girl and older boy who grew up in the same remote village. There is also an American medical missionary and a professional soldier who was American who figure prominently. The story is told via the points of view of each of these – in turn – but also involves points of view of others, as well, including a dog.

The story, which bounced around in time and place and POVs, was engaging enough to keep me reading. However, it was a difficult read. There were many “too long” descriptive passages. Bouncing around as it did made it difficult to keep track of the plot and characters. Also the story was in translation from Chinese. Throughout the reading of it, there were many phrases that were (to my mind) typically Chinese, but which did not translate well.

It was a beautiful and heartfelt story of people living through unspeakable horrors. I would certainly recommend it to anyone wanting to know about Chinese life prior to the 50s.

I received this Kindle edition from NetGalley and the publisher, Amazon Crossing, in exchange for an honest review.

Although I give it four stars, I have mixed feelings about "A Single Swallow."

It is a beautiful story of a woman, told through the view and experiences of three men that shaped her life after the three men have died. The story itself often flows at a nice pace, giving the reader just the right amount of tension and "ah-ha!" moments as the stories of the three men start to weave with each other.


It is wonderful to be able to experience the world through works from around the world-- but it is also difficult to know whether the book feels 'off' because of the translation or because of the book. For example, there was an interlude told from the perspective of two dogs. As much as I wanted to enjoy their perspective, the humanizing of the dogs in that particular point of the story didn't work for me. I don't know if it was because the translation made the animals awkward, or if it was the story itself.

The ending was not very satisfying- you know where a lot of the story is going to to because three of the main characters are dead at the beginning of the story. I give this 3.5 stars, rounded up to 4. Most of the story itself was an enjoyable read and I think there is a lot to learn about Chinese culture and society in WW2 and into the start of Communist China. This would make a great group read and discussion.

Thank you Netgalley and AmazonCrossing for an ARC copy of this book in exchange for an honest review.

I really struggled with this book and about halfway through decided it would be one I couldn't finish. For me the writing style dragged, with almost a stream of consciousness that moved too slowly, was at the same time too descriptive while lacking development, and seemed lost in it's explanation. It may be because of the translation process, but for me I could not connect with the writing and in the end not with the story either. There are multiple view points in the novel, some disturbing scene I didn't expect, and ultimately an interesting premise that fell flat for me.

This was my first book by this author, It was pretty enjoyable. I would give this book a 4.5 star rating! It was a pretty Quick and easy read!

I have read this book twice so far and will probably read many times again. It is the story of three men who survive war but so much more, I highly recommend

At the end of their lives three men meet again, after a hiatus of seventy-two years, to reminisce about the times they shared living in the same village during the Chinese-Japanese War between 1943-1945, and make sense of how their decisions big and small impacted the life of the woman they loved, to whom they each knew by a different name.

Using as backdrop Chinese history from 1943 to early 21st century, A Single Swallow is a sweeping epic at a personal level of how major outside forces impacted the life of a woman named Yao Ah Yan (a.k.a. Stella/Wende) in a small Chinese village, and how she had to abandon her village as a result, meeting two other men that would alter her life in fundamental ways.

Along the way, readers get a glimpse of life and relationship dynamics in a tranquil, riverside Chinese village, how the villagers earned their living by planting and harvesting tea leaves, and how the Japanese invasion during WWII disrupted their way of life. Men were conscripted to the armed forces. Then came war training in a village housing a military camp run by American forces. These were very successful passages as life in the camp, and skirmishes against Japanese forces were related vividly and in bitter and painstaking details. By contrast, the passages covering the Chinese Civil War leading to the Chinese Communist Revolution, the purges of collaborationists of the previous regime, the Great Famine, and the subsequent years, though equally personal in scope, were painted with softer strokes.

A Single Swallow reads easily and paints a striking picture of a remarkable woman who underwent unspeakable tragedies but overcame them with sheer determination and a great deal of forgiveness. It also puts in focus how the sobering and reassuring presence of a man would empower her for years to come.

Disclaimer: I received from the publisher a free e-book via Netgalley in exchange for my honest review.

A captivating story of a Chinese woman told through the eyes of three men who enter her life at different times and leave their imprint on her life through their own mistakes, shortcomings and weaknesses.

The three protagonists make a promise to each other that they would meet at a certain spot on a fixed date after their deaths and this story is the story of their memories of life, despite being narrated by “ghosts” the storyline doesn’t seem contrived or amusing in the least.

The narration begins with the account of Liu Zhaohu, who grew up along Ah Yan, a young girl, on her tea plantation in a small village.
He later on enlists in the army against The Japanese invasion abandoning Ah Yan at a crucial time.

The second narrative is that of Pastor Billy, an American missionary living and working as a doctor in China.
His support and protection ensures that Stella, a name he decides for Ah Yan, lives and survives despite the odds against her.

The third is that of Ian Ferguson, a military instructor training soldiers in the war against the Japanese forces.
He meets Ah Yan through Pastor Billy and falls in love with her.

The story is about Ah Yan as she struggles and grapples with the challenges of life and has her trust broken again and again despite having loved unconditionally.

The transformation of Ah Yan over the years is beautifully depicted and so are the depth and range of the emotions of those who loved and lost her and in many ways themselves too.

Loved the flowery language and the vivid description of places.
Despite being a translation, I can say the charm of this book has not been lost in translation.

I mostly enjoyed this story although I wasn't a big fan of the way the story is told. The ghosts of three men have met up and are each telling their story, especially as it relates to a woman that connects them all. As each man takes his turn, he addresses the others as 'you' basically making this feel like a 2nd person point of view fire about a quarter of the book, which made it harder for me to enjoy the story.

Liu Zhaohu's narrative was my favorite, I felt most connected to his story.


*received free digital arc from netgalley

It was.... interesting, but not something I enjoyed. The perspective was new to me, but the characters felt to entitled and the novel lacked a female voice. I enjoyed learning more about a culture I wasn't familiar with, but that's about all. I was eager to finish reading to see how it ends, which took forever because of all the descriptions. Also, that dog thing... nope, not a fan.

A Single Swallow
By Zhang Ling
Published by Amazon Crossing
Publish Date October 1 2020

This was a very delicately translated beautiful, but also brutal and explicit story of three men during and at the end of WWII. They all meet up as souls after their deaths to fulfill a pact they made to meet on the anniversary of the end of the war after they have all died. They each tell their stories of how the same woman, Ah Yan, (also known as Stella, Wende, and the Swallow,) touched their lives with love and dignity and each in very different ways.

Ah Yan suffered many horrific and cruel things, and even though she placed her trust in people, over and over she was let down and hurt during her lifetime, but she still had the endurance and grace to perservere and survive through it all.

This book takes a long time to read and digest. It feels like a character study for each of the three men and for the Swallow herself. I do wish there could have been a section about Ah Yan's story, instead of having her being implied, but it still works.
There is also a lot of historical information to read. I started this book, gave up, then restarted again. I am glad I did. It was long, but worth the read. It makes you really think about the book, and in the end, it is a beautiful, thought provoking story.

I would like to thank #Netgalley, Amazon Crossing publishers, and the author Zhang Ling for this advanced eARC, due to be published Oct 1, 2020. All opinions are my own.

what a beautifully written story, the translator did a great job in keeping the flow and narration whole. I overall enjoyed reading this.

The storyline is interesting and I did feel engaged in reading more. However, I felt annoyed that the voice of the woman who was the central focus of the story, was never really expressed. We read about her through the lens of three men. And we also for some reason get the perspective from two dogs and their narrative as well?

It was engaging, yet very confusing and at a time where women are still struggling to have a voice, it wasn’t enjoyable for me to read in that sense.

Thank you Netgalley for the free translated ebook.

Enjoyed this book. Different from what I've been reading lately so if was definitely a breath of fresh air. Lovely writing by a talented author that captures your heart and mind. Recommended.

On the eve of the surrender of Japan and thus the end of the second World War, three man are sitting toasting in a small village deep into China. One is an American Missionary who is almost 40, the others are almost half his age. One is an American soldier sent there to train Chinese recruits, the other is one of those Chinese who became an expert marksman. They make a solemn vow: when they will die their ghost will return to the village on the anniversary of this victory and wait for the other ghosts.

Soon after one of the ghosts arrives but it takes many decades until the friends are reunited again. They realise that a forth person is missing: the girl they all loved in their own special way. (I think as a father figure, a bosom friend and a lover) They start to tell each other about their lives.

Most time is spend on the life of the young Chinese soldier thus creating the recent history of China. From the days that rural villages had only one scribe and people lacked decent shoes to a son in law who are now professors in America. That is maybe also because the book is written by someone originally from China.

It is translated from the original Chinese into English but the language still oozes foreign origins. Some sentences are real jewels

Although the part told by the dogs is sweet but it does not fit into the concept of a meeting in the 21st century as the dogs tell their ghost story in 1945.

I liked the glimpse into a for me foreign culture and a historic era. The story is divided amongst several people what makes it less easy to identify with one but I liked the Chinese soldier most. It is beautifully written and I liked the ending.

A story you will remember.

Reviewed this novel for Netgalley. It will be published 01 Oct 2020.

Includes spoilers!

The book centers around one woman, and the men all claim her in their own way. What I was struck with is how much she gave up for them versus what she got in return.
The writing and translation was beautiful.
The story was a bit long winded in certain bits. Sometimes it was a little confusing with story belonged to which man, but luckily there were small summaries in between with clearly guided me towards the correct man.
Now I know this might sound odd, but the section told by the two dogs was both my favorite and least favorite part of the book. I understand they had a better overview and reason to tell a part of the story from their perspective, but if we were adding in new things, I would have liked to read more from Ah Yan/Stella/Wende's perspective.
I haven't been able to verify how much of the story was historically inaccurate/accurate, but it was fascinating to learn more about the wars and how it affected everyone. Wars have no real winners, and everybody is branded with it for life.
In conclusion, I enjoyed this book and would recommend it.

The premise of the book sounded great. The bones of the story were good, but there were definitely some things I didn't like about the book.

TRIGGER WARNING: bombing, gore, sexual assault, and death of pets

First and foremost, the text was overly descriptive, and and was heavily overburdened by information that was unrelated to the plot. The descriptions were so incredibly detailed that it took me off topic and made it easy for the plot to get lost. There was a lot of telling rather than showing, leading to chapters that were excessively long and kind of boring. The entire story is narrated through the point of view of various characters, including two pet dogs. The chapter with the dogs really lost me. As much as I love dogs, the story being told from their point of view involved complex humanized emotions that wasn't believable. T

he entire time I read, I waited to find out what actually happened. The story went from the future and worked backwards, with scattered periods out of order. I found myself often getting distracted, and waiting for something to happen. There was a lot of focus on the status of a woman who was sexually assaulted, and I didn't especially love how it was handled by any of the characters. When the end of the book finally arrived, the final chapter would have been sufficient, except for the presence of an epilogue that was completely unnecessary.

Overall, the book had so much potential, but maybe because it was originally written in a language other than it was translated to, it left something lacking for me.

This novel is told through the narrations of three story tellers interwoven with one another to perfection. It was a great story, very well told, from the point of view of a Japanese soldier, a gunner's mate and a pastor. They each loved and lost and their experiences link them together. The story was slow but a good one, despite the hardship that necessarily was included due to the period in which the tale was set and the atrocities that occurred during those events. I can understand why this translation was so eagerly awaited. It's a well thought out novel, one that won't be forgotten in a hurry.

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A Single Swallow by Ling Zhang (translated by Shelly Bryant) is an award-winning Chinese novel taking place during the Japanese occupation of China during World War II. Ling Zhang is an award winning author.

The story follows three men, American missionary Pastor Billy, brash gunner’s mate Ian Ferguson, and local soldier Liu Zhaohu who promised one another that they will each other, after their deaths on the anniversary of Japan’s surrender.

As each one takes a turn telling their story, they all come down to Ah Yan, or Swallow, a girl each man loved in their own way.

Even though the story is told through the multiple points of view of three men, the real start of the book is the woman who they are all in love with, in some way or another. Ah Yan, or Swallow, leaves her mar on each one of the men at some point in their life, which they reminisce about after their death.

The narrative of A Single Swallow by Ling Zhang is very lyrical, great translation by Shelly Bryant who, I believe, really captured the essence of the story and the spirit of it. A novel about a very strong woman, who constantly puts others before herself, many times in a heartbreaking fashion.

I thought that the style of making the three narrators supporting actors in the novels, while the main protagonist view point is left alone was very creative story-telling. Even though the three narrators are dead, and tell the story in hindsight, the overlapping of their narratives creates a strong story.

The first chapter or two got me interested in the concept, ghosts meeting up in a per-scheduled date and time, even though they had to wait a few decades for the meeting to cumulate fully. The narrative got slower than, but the rich language kept me going and once Ah Yan got introduced the whole story took off.

There are several brutal scenes, after all this is a novel about a war. The way the Japanese treated their Chinese captors, the way the Communists Chinese treated their own people, and of course the horrible events which Ah Yan went through are not for the faint of heart, but make the story much stronger and significant.

This is, however, a slow novel and there are a few parts which, I felt, could have been cut to make the pace faster (why do I need to know about two dogs, it added nothing to the story).