#Blogtour Song by Michelle Jana Chan

 

It's an absolute pleasure to take part in the BlogTour Song by Michelle Jana Chan.

About the Author

Michelle Jana Chan is an award-winning journalist and travel editor of Vanity Fair in the UK, where she presents the magazine's digital Future Series. Formerly, Michelle was a BBC TV presenter, a news producer at CNN International and a reporter at Newsweek. She was a Morehead-Cain scholar at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.

Follow @michellejchan on Twitter, on Instagram, Visit michellejanachan.com, Buy Song

About the book

Song is just a boy when he sets out from Lishui village in China. Brimming with courage and ambition, he leaves behind his impoverished broken family, hoping he’ll make his fortune and return home. 

Chasing tales of sugarcane, rubber and gold, Song embarks upon a perilous voyage across the oceans to the British colony of Guiana, but once there he discovers riches are not so easy to come by and he is forced into labouring as an indentured plantation worker.

This is only the beginning of Song’s remarkable life, but as he finds himself between places and between peoples, and increasingly aware that the circumstances of birth carry more weight than accomplishments or good deeds, Song fears he may live as an outsider forever.

This beautifully written and evocative story spans nearly half a century and half the globe, and though it is set in another century, Song’s story of emigration and the quest for an opportunity to improve his life is timeless.

Review

This is the story of a young Chinese boy who believes it is his duty to take care of his family after the death of his father. His childhood is swallowed up by this fierce need to fulfill said duty, which at some point is exchanged with a determination to survive and then to take care of his own family.

There is something Song's mother says in the first few chapters and Song then later admits to himself in the last chapters - it's an incredibly poignant moment. It's actually something that connects Song with nearly every person who leaves their entire world behind to find something else or better in life, even those who don't take their paths willingly. 

His mother knows, but it takes Song ages to realise she is right. It takes the threat of loss, the acknowledgement of what is really important, missed opportunities and that those on pedestals tend to stumble off them quite regularly.

It's a beautifully lyrical at times, despite the more difficult moments. I really liked the last few pages and had to read them again just to make sure. The characters need to be given more depth, let's see below the surface and not just wander on the periphery of poignant. The pain of his situation as a young migrant child, the trouble and not just the happy. Also to not try and out-intellect your audience, because sometimes it means some of said audience will completely miss the point. Chan clearly has the kind of story in her that readers will not easily forget.

Buy Song at Amazon Uk or go to Goodreads for any other retailer. Publisher : Unbound pub date 18 Mar. 2021. Buy at Amazon com.