{"product_id":"a-concise-chinese-english-dictionary-for-lovers-a","title":"Xiaolu Guo: A Concise Chinese-English Dictionary for Lovers, A [2007] paperback","description":"Who would believe that reading a novel written in deliberately bad English could be as uplifting an experience as this? But Xiaolu Guo, writing in English for the first time, has pulled it off in a novel that has the potential to be as successful as \"A History of Tractors\" in Ukranian or \"Lost in Translation\". Her narrator, who calls herself Z because no one can pronounce her name, is a 23-year-old Chinese language student who has come to London to learn English. When the book begins she can barely ask for a cup of tea, but when language comes, so does love. As she gets to know British culture she also falls for an older English man who lives a resolutely bachelor life in Hackney. It's a million miles away from the small Chinese town she comes from, where her parents want nothing more for her than that she should follow them into the shoe business. Z learns about sex, humour, companionship and passion, but she also learns the painful truth that language is also a barrier and the more you know about it, the less you understand.\u003cbr\u003eWritten in short chapters, each the definition of a word, this is a brilliantly clever book that pokes fun at England and China, explores the endless possibilities for misunderstanding between East and West and paints a portrait of a relationship that everyone will understand, no matter what their nationality.","brand":"Guo, Xiaolu","offers":[{"title":"New","offer_id":50728073560403,"sku":"9780701180386","price":17.13,"currency_code":"EUR","in_stock":false},{"title":"Good","offer_id":47080884666707,"sku":"XG80701180386","price":5.99,"currency_code":"EUR","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0616\/4001\/6057\/files\/guo-xiaolu-xiaolu-guo-a-concise-chinese-english-dictionary-for-lovers-a-2007-paperback-1154479679.jpg?v=1743881122","url":"https:\/\/theirishbookshop.live\/products\/a-concise-chinese-english-dictionary-for-lovers-a","provider":"Chapters Bookstore","version":"1.0","type":"link"}