Little Gods

Jin's richly textured, unsparing writing questions whether a self can exist unmarked by the past * New Yorker *
Enthralling. Crisply told and seductively crafted, Little Gods plumbs the depths of the immigrant story to reveal something sharp, intricate, and true. I didn't want to put this book down or part with the brilliant, maddening woman at its center. -- C Pam Zhang
Meng Jin has so much to say about the legacy of the past, about families and secrets and journeys of the body and the heart. She has a sharp eye for transformation: subtle changes of feeling, huge national and international changes. Her writing has a clean, dark humour that I love. She represents the best of international literary fiction and is a much needed voice as readers clamour for artists whose insight reaches across the globe and across the years. -- Bidisha
Meng Jin's beautiful debut novel is ambitious in the best ways: meticulously observed, daringly imagined, rich in character and history. Ranging across continents, cultures and generations, Jin poses profound questions: how might we know ourselves, or the people we love? And what truths, if any, travel with us? -- Claire Messud
Little Gods expands the future of the immigrant novel * New York Times Book Review *
A brilliant debut... the kind of audacity our world needs now -- Gina Apostol
In Little Gods, Meng Jin has created a novel not entirely dissimilar to an intricate puzzle-readers, like the novel's characters, have to piece together fragments of the past and the present to unravel the secrets hidden in the pages, and are ultimately rewarded with an absorbing, visceral portrait of motherhood and migration. This is a beautifully written novel with an inventive structure and memorable characters. -- Deepa Anappara
Meng Jin's complex and ambitious debut presents a story of life and legacy * The Face *
It's a page-turner - but all the while it winks, reminding us that possible explanations in our universe are as varied as the beings who populate it * Paris Review *
Artfully composed and emotionally searing, Jin's debut about lost girls, bottomless ambition, and the myriad ways family members can hurt and betray one another is gripping from beginning to end. This is a beautiful, intensely moving debut * Publisher's Weekly, Starred Review *
Jin's debut is at heart a mystery, as a young Chinese American woman returns to China to try to understand her recently deceased mother's decisions and to find her biological father... Su Lan is a fascinating character of a type rarely seen in fiction, an ambitious woman whose intellect and drive allow her to envision changing the very nature of time * Kirkus Reviews *
Spectacular and emotionally polyphonic... What makes Little Gods extraordinary is the way it examines not only the trajectory of its characters' lives but also their emotional motivations... That Jin has managed to craft such an intimate, emotionally complex story is an awesome achievement. That she managed to do it in her debut novel, doubly so * Bookpage, Starred Review *
Little Gods is an intelligent, somewhat restrained look at the effects that tectonic political shifts have on ordinary citizens, effects thareverberate across the decades, and for its young American protagonist, even across oceans * San Francisco Chronicle *
With precocious dexterity, Jin... adroitly privileges her readers with a haunting omniscience she denies her characters... Skilfully revealed, exquisitely rendered, Jin's first novel undoubtedly presages future success * Booklist, Starred Review *
Little Gods marks a bold first step for a novelist who promises to give us even finer work in the future * Washington Post *
This novel questions whether it's possible to ever know another person, particularly if that person is undergoing seismic shifts across generations and countries. This is a quietly enthralling study of the brilliant physicist Su Lan, whose complex and often contradictory life is puzzled over by the people who knew her. -- C Pam Zhang * Guardian *
Brilliant... Elegantly written, emotionally compelling, and thought provoking on every page... It is a masterfully crafted story about the gravity of the past, that unceasing pull towards a thing at once hidden and all encompassing * The Millions *
Weaving the past and present, Little Gods is a haunting tale of love, ambition, and family * Electric Literature *
Ambitious... a surprising and wrenching tale... Little Gods is built from familiar tropes: loves amid violence, lost parents, secrets held by those closest to us. But Jin brings a fresh imagination to them * USA Today *
Meng Jin's Little Gods is a sweeping tale of a daughter's attempts to understand a mother who has endeavored for decades to erase herself, first from her impoverished beginnings, and then from the wreckage of her own scholarly ambitions. Jin has created a story both personal and political, as China's own social upheaval becomes braided into Liya and her mother Su Lan's history. Prepare to be swept away by the global reach of Jin's sharp eye, the intellectual depths of her characters' minds, and the twists and turns of a love story between wounded people, and a wounded nation. * Lillian Li *
The acute insights of Meng Jin's debut novel linger long after its close * Christian Science Monitor *
Meng Jin's Little Gods is one of the most complex character studies I've ever read... This is a smart and emotionally devastating novel * NPR *
Time sustains and ultimately devastates a brilliant physicist in Meng Jin's ambitious, stomach-twisting debut, Little Gods... Weaving intentionally (and effectively) through decades of China's past... Little Gods is both imaginative and deeply rooted in reality * Self Awareness, Starred Review *
A smart, emotionally charged novel * Book Browse *
Meng Jin is a writer whose sweep is as intimate as it is global... A fierce and intelligent debut from a writer with longitude and latitude embedded in her vision -- Colum McCann
This stunning, lyrical debut marks Meng Jin as a literary force, and offers readers an opportunity to explore the intricate ways that grief, identity, sacrifice, and love all weave together to create a bond between mother and daughter * Refinery 29 *