Alison Wong

A comienzos del siglo XX, en Nueva Zelanda, numerosos inmigrantes se establecieron en el bullicioso barrio chino de Wellington, donde los hermanos Yung y Shun se ganan la vida para poder mantener a sus familiares en China. Todos deben adaptarse si quieren sobrevivir y prosperar en su nuevo lugar adoptivo. Mientras, en la otra parte de la ciudad, Katherine McKechnie lucha por criar a sus hijos tras la muerte de su esposo Donald, un estridente periodista ultraconservador, idolatrado por su rebelde hijo adolescente Robbie y que tenía aterrorizada a toda la familia. Cuando Katherine conoce a Yung, se siente conmovida por su generosidad. Pronto inician una relación clandestina que Robbie no puede soportar. En vísperas de la I Guerra Mundial, mientras miles de jóvenes son arrastrados por una oleada de patriotismo, Robbie se apropia del honor de la familia. Y al hacerlo, coloca a su madre en el corazón de una tragedia que afectará a todos y a todo lo que resulta querido para ella...… (plus d'informations)

This is a debut novel for author Alison Wong. Set in Wellington New Zealand in the early twentieth-century it AS THE EARTH TURNS SILVER follows the intersecting lives of two people from two different cultures amid a time when racist policies were being presented to the New Zealand parliament. Chung Yung is a Chinese immigrant who helps his older brother run a fruit and vegetable shop in order to support their families back in China. Katherine McKechnie is struggling to raise two young children after the death of her tyrant of a husband. Katherine’s husband had been a tabloid reporter and supported the racist agitator and murderer Lionel Terry. Unfortunately he was able to implant his racist and intolerant attitude into his young son Robbie before he died.

Katherine buys her fruit and vegetables from the store owned by the Chung brothers. There she meets, make friends with, and gradually falls in love with Chung Yung, the younger brother. The resulting affair takes place at night once the children have gone to bed over the course of the next few years until the start of WWI. When Robbie joins up with the New Zealand Army and leaves to fight in Europe, and his sister goes odd to study to become a doctor. The couple finally feel that they could become more open about their relationship. But, as it is wont to do, fate steps in.

Alison Wong is a good writer. The controversial issues she covered such as racism, women’s suffrage and class are handled gently and skilfully. The story is not an in your face read, it plods gently along keeping you hooked until the end arrives, and that is where it came unstuck for me. The end was not a good end for me. Not because it was sad, but it seemed sudden and left me hanging, as if there was more to come but the author forgot to go back and finish. Maybe that was what she had planned all along. But it left me unsatisfied.… (plus d'informations)

As the Earth Turns Silver won the New Zealand Post Book Award in 2010, and tells the intertwining stories of the unhappy McKechnie family and a pair of brothers from China, Yung and Shun, in the early 20th century in Wellington, New Zealand.

Overall it was a good read, but not as good as I'd been hoping. I like my plots more complex, and thought the ending was a bit of a cop out. Not a bad book by any means (the characters were good and believable, the background of New Zealand in the early 20th century was interesting, it was well written, and there was a veracity to the tale of Chinese immigrants to NZ). I think it's just a case of it being oversold to me.… (plus d'informations)