Quote by Madeleine Thien: “To live is to remember. To remember is to grieve.”

This poignant quote links existence directly to the act of remembrance, and remembrance to the inevitability of grief. It suggests that to be alive and aware is to carry the weight of past losses, making grief an inherent part of living.

Deeply rooted in the trauma of the Cultural Revolution and Tiananmen Square, the novel grapples with collective and individual grief, reflecting on how societies cope with and remember profound historical suffering.

Canadian novelist of Malaysian-Chinese descent whose novel Do Not Say We Have Nothing was shortlisted for the Booker Prize in 2016 and won the Scotiabank Giller Prize. Her work traces political trauma across generations through music, memory, and displacement.