---
product_id: 34395310
title: "Do Not Say We Have Nothing: A Novel"
price: "VT11767"
currency: VUV
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reviews_count: 8
url: https://www.desertcart.vu/products/34395310-do-not-say-we-have-nothing-a-novel
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region: Vanuatu
---

# Do Not Say We Have Nothing: A Novel

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Do Not Say We Have Nothing: A Novel [Thien, Madeleine] on desertcart.com. *FREE* shipping on qualifying offers. Do Not Say We Have Nothing: A Novel

Review: "A story that contained my history and would contain my future." - Mao Zedong’s late 1940s Land Reform Movement in China, which was meant to redistribute land to the peasantry and improve the well-being of the people, failed miserably. Over 36 million civilians starved to death, and the people were forced to hide their thoughts and beliefs, or risk torture and death. The post-Mao era continued the terror of the people and finally resulted in the protests and killings in Tiananmen Square. DO NOT SAY WE HAVE NOTHING is Canadian novelist Madeleine Thien’s epic, eloquent, and prizewinning novel--a pean to love, duality, memory, music, and the nature of stories and time. The fate of two families is depicted, and the merging of their stories is intricately bound together with their struggles. The classical musicians at the Shanghai Conservatory were forced to hide their thoughts and feelings, and they could not play music that had passion and individuality, unless it conformed to Mao’s view of tidy communism. If the musicians demonstrated their personal virtues, they were tortured, and their instruments destroyed. The cast of characters here hid the music they composed, and sang or hummed the notes quietly or silently. Their music was ripped from their lives, but not from their hearts, even as they were forced to work jobs that were in service to the communist government. Over 70 years of repression is covered in this novel, mostly 20th century but leading up to the re-opening of the Shanghai Conservatory in the early aughts. The duality of identity—the prescribed self and the true self—is the main theme, along with the beautiful music that the characters (many of them musicians) both created and listened to, with Glenn Gould’s Goldberg Variations (Bach) running throughout the novel, and a fictional Book of Records that the characters contributed to over the decades. It is non-linear, reminding the reader of the nature of time and the powerful, enduring nobility of music, as well as the confluence of politics and art. Duality is present everywhere in the novel, and the narrative thrusts us into two worlds at all times—the one authorized by the government, and the truth that we carry quietly inside. “The only life that matters is in your mind. The only truth is the one that lives invisibly, that waits even after you close the book. Silence, too, is a kind of music. Silence will last.” Thien does a remarkable, phenomenal job of balancing silence and music in the same thread, opposing forces that remain together. The opening lines are a pair in itself. “In a single year, my father left us twice. The first time, to end his marriage, and the second, when he took his own life.” The first pages introduce us to Jiang Li-ling (English name Marie Jiang) in Vancouver, where she lives with her mother in the early 1990s. A teenage relative, Ai-Ming, comes from China to live with them, as she was forced to flee the brutal attacks in Tiananmen Square. As the two girls grow closer, the family history is slowly uncovered. Marie learns that her father, Kai, was a concert pianist during the Cultural Reformation, and that Ai Ming’s father, Sparrow, was his instructor at the Shanghai Conservatory all those years ago. A set of notebooks called Historical Records serves as a motif and a frame for the story, and for a history that is both forgotten in a dense fog, and yet unforgettable, too. How these opposing concepts can be held together is actualized in the unfolding of the story. Lyrical, heartbreaking, tender, brutal, and staggering, this novel will stay with the reader for all time, like the Chinese history of its making. DO NOT SAY WE HAVE NOTHING won Canada’s top prize, the Scotiabank Giller Prize in 2016, and was short-listed for the Man Booker of the same year.
Review: How can good and decent people prevent this from happening again? - I loved this book. A wonderful story which takes place during a very dark period in China’s history which occurred in my own lifetime. The book is full of music and poetic wisdom despite the tragic events described during the Great Leap Forward, a man-made famine that took the lives of 36 million people, and the Cultural Revolution. How can a country and its people recover from such horror? How can good and decent people prevent this from happening again? From the scholar Kang Youwei, “And yet throughout the world, past and present, for thousands of years, those whom we call good men, righteous men, have been accustomed to the sight of such things, have sat and looked and considered them to be matters of course, have not demanded justice for the victims or offered help to them. This is the most appalling, unjust, and unequal thing, the most inexplicable theory under heaven.”

## Technical Specifications

| Specification | Value |
|---------------|-------|
| Best Sellers Rank | #1,448,401 in Books ( See Top 100 in Books ) #1,953 in Historical British & Irish Literature #6,302 in Literary Fiction (Books) #10,426 in Historical Fiction (Books) |
| Customer Reviews | 4.2 4.2 out of 5 stars (3,533) |
| Dimensions  | 6.6 x 1.6 x 9.6 inches |
| Edition  | Illustrated |
| ISBN-10  | 039360988X |
| ISBN-13  | 978-0393609882 |
| Item Weight  | 1.8 pounds |
| Language  | English |
| Print length  | 480 pages |
| Publication date  | October 11, 2016 |
| Publisher  | W. W. Norton & Company |

## Images

![Do Not Say We Have Nothing: A Novel - Image 1](https://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/71h0C+-SMCL.jpg)

## Customer Reviews

### ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ "A story that contained my history and would contain my future."
*by S***N on February 21, 2023*

Mao Zedong’s late 1940s Land Reform Movement in China, which was meant to redistribute land to the peasantry and improve the well-being of the people, failed miserably. Over 36 million civilians starved to death, and the people were forced to hide their thoughts and beliefs, or risk torture and death. The post-Mao era continued the terror of the people and finally resulted in the protests and killings in Tiananmen Square. DO NOT SAY WE HAVE NOTHING is Canadian novelist Madeleine Thien’s epic, eloquent, and prizewinning novel--a pean to love, duality, memory, music, and the nature of stories and time. The fate of two families is depicted, and the merging of their stories is intricately bound together with their struggles. The classical musicians at the Shanghai Conservatory were forced to hide their thoughts and feelings, and they could not play music that had passion and individuality, unless it conformed to Mao’s view of tidy communism. If the musicians demonstrated their personal virtues, they were tortured, and their instruments destroyed. The cast of characters here hid the music they composed, and sang or hummed the notes quietly or silently. Their music was ripped from their lives, but not from their hearts, even as they were forced to work jobs that were in service to the communist government. Over 70 years of repression is covered in this novel, mostly 20th century but leading up to the re-opening of the Shanghai Conservatory in the early aughts. The duality of identity—the prescribed self and the true self—is the main theme, along with the beautiful music that the characters (many of them musicians) both created and listened to, with Glenn Gould’s Goldberg Variations (Bach) running throughout the novel, and a fictional Book of Records that the characters contributed to over the decades. It is non-linear, reminding the reader of the nature of time and the powerful, enduring nobility of music, as well as the confluence of politics and art. Duality is present everywhere in the novel, and the narrative thrusts us into two worlds at all times—the one authorized by the government, and the truth that we carry quietly inside. “The only life that matters is in your mind. The only truth is the one that lives invisibly, that waits even after you close the book. Silence, too, is a kind of music. Silence will last.” Thien does a remarkable, phenomenal job of balancing silence and music in the same thread, opposing forces that remain together. The opening lines are a pair in itself. “In a single year, my father left us twice. The first time, to end his marriage, and the second, when he took his own life.” The first pages introduce us to Jiang Li-ling (English name Marie Jiang) in Vancouver, where she lives with her mother in the early 1990s. A teenage relative, Ai-Ming, comes from China to live with them, as she was forced to flee the brutal attacks in Tiananmen Square. As the two girls grow closer, the family history is slowly uncovered. Marie learns that her father, Kai, was a concert pianist during the Cultural Reformation, and that Ai Ming’s father, Sparrow, was his instructor at the Shanghai Conservatory all those years ago. A set of notebooks called Historical Records serves as a motif and a frame for the story, and for a history that is both forgotten in a dense fog, and yet unforgettable, too. How these opposing concepts can be held together is actualized in the unfolding of the story. Lyrical, heartbreaking, tender, brutal, and staggering, this novel will stay with the reader for all time, like the Chinese history of its making. DO NOT SAY WE HAVE NOTHING won Canada’s top prize, the Scotiabank Giller Prize in 2016, and was short-listed for the Man Booker of the same year.

### ⭐⭐⭐⭐ How can good and decent people prevent this from happening again?
*by R***R on December 30, 2017*

I loved this book. A wonderful story which takes place during a very dark period in China’s history which occurred in my own lifetime. The book is full of music and poetic wisdom despite the tragic events described during the Great Leap Forward, a man-made famine that took the lives of 36 million people, and the Cultural Revolution. How can a country and its people recover from such horror? How can good and decent people prevent this from happening again? From the scholar Kang Youwei, “And yet throughout the world, past and present, for thousands of years, those whom we call good men, righteous men, have been accustomed to the sight of such things, have sat and looked and considered them to be matters of course, have not demanded justice for the victims or offered help to them. This is the most appalling, unjust, and unequal thing, the most inexplicable theory under heaven.”

### ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ wonderfully rich and brilliantly written
*by J***P on October 18, 2016*

I adored this book, having read it for a shadow panel of Man Booker longlist nominees. While I loved it, it may not appeal to everyone. I will try to lay out why I loved it and then will end with my recommendations for what type of reader will enjoy this book. No spoilers. This perhaps was one of the most dense books from the 2016 Man Booker longlist. It took me quite a while to feel fully immersed in the book and it didn't grab hold of me immediately. Instead, my love for the novel grew slowly over the course of the book. The novel is quite complex and filled with so many characters that initially it is hard to follow. It's not that I wasn't enjoying it, it was just that it required some effort and concentration to figure out who was who and what was happening. However, my perseverance paid off because this was truly a dazzling and heart-wrenching story and one that is well worth the effort. Thien weaves in various narratives that ultimately presents readers with a multifaceted look at how revolution impacts the personal lives of multiple generations. Both plot and character development were complex and nuanced. Thien tackles historical events from China's civil war up to present day and fictionalizes how these events impacted a wide variety of characters. Throughout the narrative, love of music is front and center (and the books is structured in a similar way to a classical music score). The main families are musicians (Kai a pianist, Sparrow a composer, and Zhuli a violinist). Several key pieces of classical music (Bach's Goldberg Variations) serve as recurring motifs that highlight suffering and sacrifice. The writing is very strong and the book is original. Thien incorporates Chinese characters throughout, explaining the various meanings along with photographs and a variety of musical references. Once I moved past the initial parts of the novel I found it very compelling and hard to put down. I cried with the characters, astounded at the cruelty people suffered as family and friends turned against each other during the Chinese cultural revolution. I think this book will be a serious contender for the win. I would be astounded if this doesn't make the shortlist. A fantastic book and one that I highly recommend. Who will enjoy this book? I think this will appeal to those who love historical fiction and who are interested in Chinese history and politics. It is fairly dense and takes some concentration. If you like classical music, you'll probably appreciate this book much more. I recommend reading it while listening to the music referenced in the book. If you are the sort of reader who likes fast-paced, linear narratives you may struggle with this book.

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*Last updated: 2026-03-23*