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Book of the Week

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Serialised book readings, featuring works from various genres

Serialised book readings, featuring works of non-fiction, biography, autobiography, travel, diaries, essays, humour and history

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Book of the Week: Once Upon a Time in the East

Chipo Chung

Xiaolu Guo

Pete Nichol

Karen Rose

Book of the Week: Once Upon a Time in the East: Episode 1

Once Upon a Time in the East

Episode 1

BBC Radio 4 - Book of the Week, Once Upon a Time in the East, Episode 1

Xiaolu Guo's story of growing up in China during times of transition.

Xiaolu Guo's story of growing up in China during times of transition. For the young Xiaolu, her first home was the fishing village of Shitang where she lived with her grandparents.

Xiaolu Guo's autobiography tells her remarkable story from adoption at birth through to her career as a writer and film-maker based in the UK. This abridgement deals with her formative years, living in China in times of transition.

Episode 1:
For the young Xiaolu, her first home was the fishing village of Shitang where she lived with her grandparents.

Xiaolu Guo is a novelist, essayist, screenwriter and film maker. She was born in south-eastern China in 1973 . Her novel, in English translation, Village of Stone, was shortlisted for the 2005 Independent Foreign Fiction Prize and the 2006 International IMPAC Dublin Literary Award. It was followed by her first novel written in English,'A Concise Chinese-English Dictionary for Lovers, which was shortlisted for the 2007 Orange Prize for Fiction. In April 2013, she was named one of the Best of Young British Novelists by Granta Magazine.

Her award-winning films include She, a Chinese (2009, Golden Leopard Award in Locarno Film Festival) and UFO In Her Eyes (2011), adapted as a screenplay from her novel. Her documentaries include Once upon a time Proletarian (2009), We Went to Wonderland (2008), How Is Your Fish Today? (2006) and The Concrete Revolution (2004), which was awarded the Grand Prix in the 2005 International Human Rights Film Festival. 

Writer: Xiaolu Guo
Abridger Pete Nichols
Reader: Chipo Chung
Producer: Karen Rose

A Sweet Talk production for BBC Radio 4.

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Xiaolu Guo's autobiography tells her remarkable story from adoption at birth through to her career as a writer and film-maker based in the UK.

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