{"product_id":"last-words-from-montmartre-9781590177259","title":"Last Words from Montmartre","description":"An NYRB Classics Original \u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003eWhen the pioneering Taiwanese novelist Qiu Miaojin committed suicide in 1995 at age twenty-six, she left behind her unpublished masterpiece, \u003ci\u003eLast Words from Montmartre\u003c\/i\u003e. Unfolding through a series of letters written by an unnamed narrator, \u003ci\u003eLast Words\u003c\/i\u003e tells the story of a passionate relationship between two young women--their sexual awakening, their gradual breakup, and the devastating aftermath of their broken love. In a style that veers between extremes, from self-deprecation to pathos, compulsive repetition to rhapsodic musings, reticence to vulnerability, Qiu's genre-bending novel is at once a psychological thriller, a sublime romance, and the author's own suicide note. \u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003eThe letters (which, Qiu tells us, can be read in any order) leap between Paris, Taipei, and Tokyo. They display wrenching insights into what it means to live between cultures, languages, and genders--until the genderless character Zoë appears, and the narrator's spiritual and physical identity is transformed. As powerfully raw and transcendent as Mishima's \u003ci\u003eConfessions of a Mask\u003c\/i\u003e, Goethe's \u003ci\u003eThe Sorrows of Young Werther\u003c\/i\u003e, and Theresa Cha's \u003ci\u003eDictée\u003c\/i\u003e, to name but a few, \u003ci\u003e Last Words from Montmartre\u003c\/i\u003e proves Qiu Miaojin to be one of the finest experimentalists and modernist Chinese-language writers of our generation.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eAuthor:\u003c\/b\u003e Qiu Miaojin\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eBinding Type:\u003c\/b\u003e Paperback\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003ePublisher:\u003c\/b\u003e New York Review of Books\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003ePublished:\u003c\/b\u003e 06\/03\/2014\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eSeries:\u003c\/b\u003e New York Review Books (Paperback)\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003ePages:\u003c\/b\u003e 176\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eWeight:\u003c\/b\u003e 0.45lbs\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eSize:\u003c\/b\u003e 8.17h x 5.04w x 0.52d\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eISBN:\u003c\/b\u003e 9781590177259\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eAward:\u003c\/b\u003e Lambda Literary Awards - Finalist","brand":"New York Review of Books","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":44551232749705,"sku":"9781590177259","price":16.95,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0636\/9240\/6921\/files\/img_48c90a65-940d-4735-9a52-60491deb984d.jpg?v=1756189838","url":"https:\/\/sonsanddaughtersbooks.com\/products\/last-words-from-montmartre-9781590177259","provider":"Sons and Daughters Books","version":"1.0","type":"link"}