Gold Boy, Emerald Girl

Stories

By: Yiyun Li

Narrated by: Angela Lin, James Yaegashi, Jackie Chung, Jennifer Ikeda

Author Yiyun Li, honored as one of Granta’s 21 Best Young American Novelists under age 35, continues her illustrious career with this insightful collection of short stories. With compelling visions of the scrapes and unpleasant situations in which people find themselves, Li’s works trigger emotional responses of all types - whether through a tale of unrequited love, an unburdening of guilt, or something else entirely. These heartrending stories are certain to strike a chord with listeners as they recognize aspects of their own lives.

©2010 Yiyun Li (P)2010 Recorded Books, LLC

Critic reviews

“[Resonates] with emotion . . . Gold Boy, Emerald Girl is an example of the treasure an artist can fashion from the raw materials of ordinary existence.” (Francine Prose, The New York Times Book Review)

“Yiyun Li is extraordinary, a storyteller of the first order. Each tale in this collection is as wild and beautiful and thorny as a heart.” (Junot Díaz)

“A moving and unforgettable experience . . . Yiyun Li’s characters, like the stories they inhabit, often seem at first glance quiet, modest and unassuming. [But] there is considerable drama hidden beneath the placid surfaces they present to the world.” ( The Washington Post)

Sometimes harsh, but always compelling

Each story seemed a powerful vignette of a life, life as it is, and continues often without resolution. The first few stories were read with so little emotion that it seemed skeletal and harsh. They seem to fill out as it continues, culminating in the last two.