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Book review: Once Upon a Time in the East by Xiaolu Guo is a fascinating memoir of moving past terrible beginnings

Guo was handed at birth to a peasant family who couldn’t look after, then went to stay with her illiterate grandparents in a remote village – so how she ended up a successful filmmaker and English author is an inspiring story of will

Reading Time:4 minutes
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Xiaolu Guo has published a memoir of her difficult early life and the transformative power of ar.
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Once Upon a Time in the East: A story of growing up

by Xiaolu Guo

Chatto & Windus

4/5 stars

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Xiaolu Guo has always been a writer who has worn both her heart and her integrity on her sleeve, whether tearing pages from her own life for her novels or experimenting publicly with form or writing in what is for her an entirely foreign language.

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