Love and revolution : a novel about Song Qingling and Sun Yat-sen

Though he is known as the "Father of the Chinese Revolution," Sun Yat-sen spent much of his life in exile struggling for political dominance.

His wife, Song Qingling, is known as "the woman who loved China," but this is only one side of an intriguing individual who survived a tumultuous and politically charged marriage.

In "Love and Revolution", one of Taiwan's most celebrated authors spins the lives and passions of these two fascinating figures into a rich, sophisticated, and absorbing saga.

Born in 1866, Sun Yat-sen grew up an admirer of the rebels who tried to overthrow the ruling Manchu dynasty.

He dreamed of strengthening China from within, but after a failed attempt at leading an insurrection in 1895, Sun was exiled to Japan.

Only in 1916, after the Manchu dynasty fell and the new Chinese Republic was established, did he return to his country and assume the role of provisional president.

While in Japan, Sun met and married the beautiful Song Quingling.

Twenty-six years her husband's junior, Song came from a wealthy Chinese family (she was the sister of Madame Chiang Kai-shek) and had received a college education in Macon, Georgia.The unique relationship between these two fuels this riveting novel.

Weaving together three distinct voices - Sun's, Song's, and a young woman rumored to be the daughter of Sun's illicit lover - Ping Lu's narrative experiments with invented memories and historical fact to explore the couple's many failings and desires.

Touching on Sun Yat-sen's tormented political life and Song Qingling's rumored affairs and difficulties after her husband's death, the novel follows the story all the way to 1981, recounting political upheavals Sun himself could never have imagined.