Will I love A Thousand Years of Good Prayers?

While I generally am not pulled to short story collections, this one grabbed me from the beginning. Each story is a gem, focusing on an individual life (or lives) in very particular contexts, moving seamlessly between late 20th century China and the U.S., between parents and children, and among the ambiguities of tradition, religion, communism, capitalism and love in all the characters’ lives.

This is Li’s first collection, a series of stories mostly exploring the lives of Chinese immigrants to the US, though some of the stories are set in China, where Li was born. Li is one of the greatest short story writers alive today, period. Part of her greatness is her profound understatement: the prose is disarmingly simple, hiding how brilliant it is.

Reading this collection is like a conjuring trick in which a familiar room becomes unfamiliar, but you aren’t sure how; you only know that the interior has altered. A standout: The Princess of Nebraska, in which a Chinese… show more.