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Nothing to My Name

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Pub Date 23 Jun 2026 | Archive Date 30 Jun 2026


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Description

A sweeping, multi-generational family saga that explores how women survive the tsunamis of history

1948, Zhoushan, China. Twelve-year-old Ah Xue watches her mother earn a living combing the hair of the wealthy women in their small fishing village, as reports of civil war and the rising Communist revolution grow closer to home.

Years later, Mimosa grows up in the shadow of her parents’ struggles, while the looming tension of the Cultural Revolution threatens to pull her family apart.

And Fei, raised as a boy by the activist father she can’t help but idolise, grapples with her identity in the aftermath of the 1989 Tiananmen Square massacre.

Spanning four decades and three generations, Nothing to My Name braids an unforgettable story of the ordinary women caught in the tides of societal upheaval, but bound by an insuppressible instinct to survive. From an astonishing new writer, it explores with remarkable tenderness the enduring repercussions of trauma, the search for stability in disorder, and the often contradictory nature of familial love.

A sweeping, multi-generational family saga that explores how women survive the tsunamis of history

1948, Zhoushan, China. Twelve-year-old Ah Xue watches her mother earn a living combing the hair of...


Available Editions

EDITION Hardcover
ISBN 9781526687272
PRICE £18.99 (GBP)
PAGES 400

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Average rating from 3 members


Featured Reviews

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“Nothing to My Name” is at the same time a sweeping generational epic and an intimate portrayal of the lives of three ordinary women. Spanning one hundred years of Chinese history, the novel deftly navigates historical points while remaining grounded in the everyday lives of the women the story is centred around.
I enjoyed the story of Ah Xue the most, but young Fei was also a well-written and complex character despite being a small child for the majority of the story. I’ve read quite a few novels about the Cultural Revolution and I found this one to be really well done, hitting on some topics that I hadn’t read about elsewhere. Kovacs is an excellent writer, portraying both small details and deep emotions with nuance and painstaking detail. This is an incredible debut. I enjoyed reading this book immensely and will continue to follow the author and her future work.

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