{"product_id":"last-words-from-montmartre-paperback","title":"Last Words from Montmartre - Paperback","description":"\u003cdiv\u003e\u003cp style=\"text-align: right;\"\u003e\u003ca href=\"https:\/\/reportcopyrightinfringement.com\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow\"\u003e\u003cb\u003eReport copyright infringement\u003c\/b\u003e\u003c\/a\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003c\/div\u003e\u003cp\u003eby \u003cb\u003eQiu Miaojin\u003c\/b\u003e (Author), \u003cb\u003eAri Larissa Heinrich\u003c\/b\u003e (Translator), \u003cb\u003eAri Larissa Heinrich\u003c\/b\u003e (Afterword by)\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eAn NYRB Classics Original \u003c\/p\u003e\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the pioneering Taiwanese novelist Qiu Miaojin committed suicide in 1995 at age twenty-six, she left behind her unpublished masterpiece, \u003ci\u003eLast Words from Montmartre\u003c\/i\u003e.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 Zo  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\u003eDict e\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.\u003ch3\u003eAuthor Biography\u003c\/h3\u003e\u003cp\u003e\u003cb\u003eQiu Miaojin\u003c\/b\u003e (1969-1995)--one of Taiwan's most innovative literary modernists, and the country's most renowned lesbian writer--was born in Chuanghua County in western Taiwan. She graduated with a degree in psychology from National Taiwan University and pursued graduate studies in clinical psychology at the University of Paris VIII . Her first published story, \"Prisoner,\" received the \u003ci\u003eCentral Daily News \u003c\/i\u003eShort Story Prize, and her novella\u003ci\u003e Lonely Crowds\u003c\/i\u003e won the United Literature Association Award. While in Paris, she directed a thirty-minute film called \u003ci\u003eGhost Carnival\u003c\/i\u003e, and not long after this, at the age of twenty-six, she committed suicide. The posthumous publications of her novels \u003ci\u003eLast Words from Montmartre\u003c\/i\u003e and \u003ci\u003eNotes of a Crocodile\u003c\/i\u003e (forthcoming from NYRB Classics) made her into one of the most revered countercultural icons in Chinese letters. After her death in 1995, she was given the China Times Honorary Prize for Literature. In 2007, a two-volume edition of her \u003ci\u003eDiaries\u003c\/i\u003e was published. \u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cb\u003eAri Larissa Heinrich\u003c\/b\u003e received a master's in Chinese literature from Harvard and a PhD in Chinese studies from the University of California at Berkeley. Heinrich and Qiu--who would have been the same age if Qiu were still alive--crossed paths without knowing each other in Taipei and in Paris. He is the author of \u003ci\u003eThe Afterlife of Images: Translating the Pathological Body Between China and the West\u003c\/i\u003e and the coeditor of\u003ci\u003e Queer Sinophone Cultures\u003c\/i\u003e. He teaches at the University of California at San Diego.\n            \u003cdiv\u003e\n\u003cstrong\u003eNumber of Pages:\u003c\/strong\u003e 176\u003c\/div\u003e\n            \u003cdiv\u003e\n\u003cstrong\u003eDimensions:\u003c\/strong\u003e 0.52 x 8.17 x 5.04 IN\u003c\/div\u003e\n            \u003cdiv\u003e\n\u003cstrong\u003ePublication Date:\u003c\/strong\u003e June 03, 2014\u003c\/div\u003e\n            \u003cdiv\u003e\n\u003cstrong\u003eAward:\u003c\/strong\u003e Lambda Literary Awards (2015)\u003c\/div\u003e\n                ","brand":"BooksCloud","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":44311401300070,"sku":"9781590177259","price":24.63,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":false}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0599\/7255\/0758\/files\/VVVuTUJobFd3dCtpUXU5eDFYamZTZz09.webp?v=1767862331","url":"https:\/\/infinitylightwa.com\/products\/last-words-from-montmartre-paperback","provider":"Infinity Light","version":"1.0","type":"link"}