Description
In 1940's, during the Second World War, they met each other on the bending shore of the magic, eternal river Yangtze. She fell in love with the much younger stranger. However, he couldn't love her back, and she couldn't love him if she would have known why he had hunted her down all over China to tell her a dark secret…
BUTTERFLY is a haunting love story a la Romeo and Juliet of the Orient. A love that cannot be but a love that will grow old during the most devastating war in history.
A shamelessly original work of art that you can read legally outside China. ￭ New Beijing Voice
A tour de force. ￭ Leanne Delehanty, author and visual artist.
Butterfly is a book that reminds you of the joy of discovering a treasure, and wondering why there aren't a few hundred-thousand more who have already found it before you. ￭ Unlikely stories.
History is written only once, so is Butterfly by Julie O'Yang. ￭ Young Chronicle
A book that has all the essential ingredients that makes a bestseller. There never seems to be a damp moment with the right choice of words. ￭ Creative Ecstasy
Highly recommended! ￭ Bibliography Masters
Set against the backdrop of the Second World War/Sino-Japanese war (1931-1945), the story centers around the fatal love between a married Chinese woman and a young Japanese soldier. However, the fantastic tale is not as simple as its plot suggests.
Butterfly is a dark fairy tale that explores passion beyond all forbidden boundaries and love tested to its limits to defy even death. Tackling controversial historical issues such as the Rape of Nanking, the question arises: what is love? Where is the salvation in all the heartlessness of mankind? Are we able to love, a deed that is so often taken for granted? Perhaps love is neither simple nor always pleasant or even inhuman. In the end the protagonists have to undergo a metamorphosis in order to be reunited again on the bank of the Yangtze River where they met many decades ago.