The River Drowns the Able Swimmer

From the end of the nineteenth century through the Cultural Revolution and into the present, this epic and intimate memoir follows three generations of convention-breaking women as they define themselves against a backdrop of China’s turbulent history

The River Drowns the Able Swimmer opens with Xujun Eberlein’s grandmother, born to a destitute peasant family on the precipice of a new era, of which her partially bound feet become a symbol. Decades later, a young woman, who will become Xujun’s mother, dedicates herself to the promises of the Communist Revolution, thus forming the world Xujun and her siblings grow up in. As the century unfolds, Xujun experiences the typical pains and euphorias of childhood, but not without the indelible imprint of politics drastically—and tragically—altering the course of her family’s life. Eventually, she marries an American scholar and leaves China for the United States, but the questions of an individual’s role in history and the double-edged nature of political idealism continue to haunt her. She excavates her past and uncovers secrets about her family, and about Chinese history in the process.

Elegantly and intimately written, this exploration of the struggle to build a life of one’s own amid the perturbations of capital-H history is heart-wrenching, insightful, and undeniably resonant with our current moment.