Green Island: A Novel Audiobook

Quotes

• Ryan’s beautifully woven novel spanning more than 50 years shares many untold and unknown stories of this time in Taiwan’s history, weaving a well-imagined tale of sacrifice, loyalty, and heartache . . . History buffs and literary fiction lovers alike will appreciate the ways that Green Island depicts episodes from Taiwan’s troubling and often horrifying past with poetry and lyricism . . . Ryan has taken an admirable step towards unearthing the countless stories of Taiwan that demand to be told.

  — Kim Liao, The Rumpus

• Moving and suspenseful . . . Green Island has few heroes, but it’s full of compassion for life’s survivors. Ryan’s rich portrayal of family life deepens the suspense. . . . An epic story worthy of a complex and determined people.

  — Clark Crutchfield, Richmond Times-Dispatch

• Beautifully written, paced nearly perfectly and above all heartfelt, a work that reaffirms the unique power of art to entertain and to educate. By humanizing history and drawing us into the intimate lives of a single family caught in the waves of history, it creates an emotional bond between the reader and subject that not even the best work of non-fiction can accomplish. By doing so, it positions itself as an important work in Taiwan’s often uneven efforts to make itself known and understood more widely.

  — J. Michael Cole, Thinking Taiwan  

• A compelling story of love, family and self-reckoning that also happens to illuminate this part of history for many American readers who have no doubt never heard of any of these events.

  — HapaMama.com

• A richly written and ambitious book . . . a treat for readers of historical novels [that will] educate many . . . There is vivid realness in the writing, as though one were reading the account of someone who was recollecting personal memory.

  — Catalina Rebuyan, Malaysia Star

• This heartbreaking novel takes readers to an island with a history unknown to many: Taiwan. Told in luscious prose, ‘Green Island’ teaches readers about the humanity of mankind, the brutality of political power and unrest, and why some secrets are never told.

  — Annie Philbrick, Bank Square Books, Boston Globe “Pick of the Week” 

• Precise and poetic . . . Ryan grants readers a closer look at the deep connections between familial love and the inescapability of history, both personal and political. This is a significant work, full of carefully researched detail that results in a moving and indelible story.

  — Publishers Weekly

• A sweeping story, as epic in scope as the story is intimate.

  — Barbara VanDenburgh, The Arizona Republic 

• Gripping: a triumph of sustained focus on unusually thorny material . . .  But Green Island is much more than a historical novel. It’s also a family epic.

  — Claire Hopley, The Washington Times

• An intricate, gracefully told tale that blends war history, suspense and a woman’s coming-of-age and beyond. . . The pages bloom with description, with a photolike sense of place. . . And throughout Green Island is an aching sense of the idea of home.

  — Moira Macdonald, The Seattle Times

• Remarkably compelling. . . As much a gripping narrative of an evolving Taiwan as an exquisitely crafted story of one family’s devotion and compromises.

  — Janine Oshiro, Honolulu Star Advertiser

• Ryan paints a chilling, convincing picture of Taiwan [that] stands as a tribute to the flawed survivors of [its] history.

  — Steph Cha, Los Angeles Times

• [An] engrossing epic. . . Absorbing and affecting, this powerful tale explores the bond between a father and daughter, the compromises they are forced to make, and the prices they pay in their quest for freedom.

  — Kristine Huntley, Booklist (starred)

• Epic. . . The narrative works movingly on many different levels but especially on the personal and the political.

  — Kirkus Reviews