Have you ever been in a natural disaster?

Alyssa and I were in Haiti during a tropical storm, and while it was scary, it was heartbreaking to witness the destruction it caused.

Aftershock by Zhang Ling and translated by Shelly Bryant is set in the summer of 1976 when an earthquake hits Tangshan, China.  The title is perfection because this follows the effects of a young girl Xiaodeng, separated from her family, who think she perished in earthquake.

This is an emotional story full of trauma, at times hard to read, but the story is so compelling, and the characters have so much depth, I couldn’t put it down.  Sometimes you feel sad for the characters and other times you hate them, but it all really felt like this could be real people.

Thank you @otrpr for this gifted copy!

Aftershock published yesterday and is available on our Amazon storefront!