White Swan

The story of three generations in twentieth-century China that blends the intimacy of memoir and the panoramic sweep of eyewitness history—a bestselling classic in thirty languages with more than ten million copies sold around the world, now with a new introduction from the author. An engrossing record of Mao’s impact on China, an unusual window on the female experience in the modern world, and an inspiring tale of courage and love, Jung Chang describes the extraordinary lives and experiences of her family members: her grandmother, a warlord’s concubine; her mother’s struggles as a young idealistic Communist; and her parents’ experience as members of the Communist elite and their ordeal during the Cultural Revolution. Chang was a Red Guard briefly at the age of fourteen, then worked as a peasant, a “barefoot doctor,” a steelworker, and an electrician. As the story of each generation unfolds, Chang captures in gripping, moving—and ultimately uplifting—detail the cycles of violent drama visited on her own family and millions of others caught in the whirlwind of history.

The literary debut of short story author, parodist, and new immigrant Faisal Marzipan, The White Swan blends cultural critique, satire, Christianity, and social commentary into a masterwork aimed at reinvigorating the modern man.

The world's most famous choreographer becomes infatuated with a coltish young dancer who proves both siren and muse. A rising star plunges into an affair with a principal but finds that ecstasy on the stage can't be surpassed in the bed. A dying legend reflects on the evanescent beauty of a life of gesture, lost to everything but memory. Each bittersweet story plants the reader amid a cast of dancers and choreographers who struggle—valiantly, playfully, fiercely—to find in the rigorous discipline and animating beauty of ballet a counterbalance to the chaos of unscripted life. Many of the tales dare to imagine the inner lives of the century's titans—Balanchine, Fonteyn and Nureyev—which rival in emotional complexity and pathos the classic dramas they enacted onstage: La Bayadere, Don Quixote, Swan Lake. White Swan, Black Swan translates the pure and essential gestures of ballet into starkly elegant prose while showing the sweat and sex beneath the serene surface. Adrienne Sharp's debut is a bravura performance.

The story of the Apsaalooke (Crow) men who scouted for the Seventh United States Cavalry in 1876 has been told by historians, with details sometimes distorted or fabricated. Biilaachia--better known as White Swan--survived the Battle of Little Bighorn despite severe wounds. One soldier recalled him standing beside his horse, firing at the Sioux: "He would not mount up and try to get away but stood and fought." White Swan continued to scout off-and-on for the U.S. Army until 1881 and recorded his 22 combat actions in 37 paintings and drawings. Done in traditional Plains warrior biographic style, his complete body of work is presented here for the first time, along with the history behind each depiction. His life is detailed in photographs, some never before published, and four little-known interviews, as well as extensive research about the Apsaalooke people.

From mod folk artist to flower power pixie elfin to the king of glam rockers, Marc Bolan was the ultimate chameleon. His far-reaching musical and stylistic influence is more relevant today than ever with hits such as 'Ride A White Swan', 'Children Of The Revolution', 'Get It On' and 'Hot Love' as fresh and exhilarating as when first released. At the peak of his popularity during his lifetime Bolan was outselling Jimi Hendrix and The Who, and yet relatively little is really known about the hypnotic, enigmatic 20th century boy turned 21st century icon. At last, in the 35th anniversary year of his tragic death, Marc Bolan represents the definite biography. Here rock biographer, Lesley-Ann Jones, paints a meticulous portrait of the T-Rex front man. From his childhood growing up in Hackney to his untimely death at the age of 29, Bolan's life was one of relentless experimentation and metamorphoses. Hallucinogenic drugs, wizardry and levitation, alcoholism, tax evasion and a spectacular fall from grace were to punctuate his short life, as he continued to strive to reinvent himself and his music over and over again. Lesley-Ann has been granted access to those who knew Bolan best, including his partner and the mother of his only son, Gloria Jones and his brother, Harry Feld.

Across North America, people in four different homes prepare for a special trip to China, while four baby girls in China await their new adoptive parents, including a lesbian couple.

Eddie Clem was born in White Swan on the Yakama reservation in the 1950s and subsequently did what most Yakama boys did at that time—he learned to shoot hoops and rodeo, fell in love, grew into a man, had children, and then watched them repeat the same process. The way Eddie did this was unique to him, however, in several respects: • His mother dies when he is born; • His father disappears into the foothills of Mt. Adams as soon as his mother is buried; • He meets the love of his life in the fifth grade; • He accidentally kills his favorite cousin on his 11th birthday; • He turns out to be better than the other boys at both shooting hoops and rodeoing; • He comes of age just in time to spend a year as a medic in Vietnam; • The love of his life marries someone else. White Swan chronicles all of these things, but they are just the beginning of the story. How Eddie and all the people he loves eventually connect with each other unfolds in a tale that celebrates the power of love, family and a people who have been tied to each other for centuries in the space between a mountain and a river that bears their name in the heart of central Washington. Praise for WHITE SWAN: “Lono Waiwaiole’s writing in White Swan is graceful, spare, seasoned with gentle humor, never overwrought. Although I didn’t grow up on an Indian reservation, play basketball, or compete in a rodeo, I found myself really caring about Eddie Clem and the people he loved yet couldn’t love enough.” —Kathleen Tyau, author of Makai and A Little Too Much Is Enough “The characters in White Swan pull on your sleeve and insist you follow them through their lives. And you want to, because the minute you meet them they grab hold of your heart. Waiwaiole's deceptively plain writing hides depths of wisdom, like the calm surface of a mountain lake. Simply a beautiful book.” —SJ Rozan, bestselling author of Paper Son “Departing from his celebrated noir tales (The Wiley Series, Dark Paradise), Waiwaiole masterfully portrays a Native American family scarred by a father’s abandonment, who find their ultimate redemption through rebirth, renewal and forgiveness.” —Kiana Davenport, author of Shark Dialogues “As Hemingway did with his Nick Adams stories, Lono Waiwaiole paints America’s rural life—its indigenous people— with intense respect and compassion. He gets it. You the reader are thrown into those sometimes beautiful, sometimes sad, but always true moments, that we call Life. And like Hemingway, too, Lono Waiwaiole has given us an American masterpiece in the bargain.” —Kent Harrington, author of Last Ferry Home “White Swan explores the push and pull of family and how people are fated to be together, even though it may take a lifetime before destiny is fulfilled. A beautiful intergenerational saga rooted in the White Swan community on the Yakama Indian Reservation nestled in the mountains of Central Washington. With his indigenous heritage and current home in the Pacific Northwest, noted noir writer Lono Waiwaiole succeeds in this creative work that falls outside of mystery genre.” —Naomi Hirahara, Edgar Award-winning author of the Mas Arai series

Originally published: Australia: Giramondo, 2013.