Swimming Back to Trout River
A Novel
Failed to add items
Sorry, we are unable to add the item because your shopping cart is already at capacity.
Add to basket failed.
Please try again later
Add to wishlist failed.
Please try again later
Remove from wishlist failed.
Please try again later
Adding to library failed
Please try again
Follow podcast failed
Unfollow podcast failed
3 Months Free + £10 Audible voucher
£5.99/mo after 3 months. Cancel monthly.
Offer ends on 5 July 2026 at 11:59 BST.
Swimming Back to Trout River
Narrated by:
Nancy Wu
Buy Now for £13.31
-
Narrated by:
-
Nancy Wu
-
By:
-
Linda Rui Feng
How many times in life can we start over without losing ourselves?
In the summer of 1986, in a small Chinese village, ten-year-old Junie receives a momentous letter from her parents, who had left for America years ago: her father promises to return home and collect her by her twelfth birthday. But Junie’s growing determination to stay put in the idyllic countryside with her beloved grandparents threatens to derail her family’s shared future.
Junie doesn’t know that her parents, Momo and Cassia, are newly estranged from one another in their adopted country, each holding close private tragedies and histories from the tumultuous years of their youth during China’s Cultural Revolution. While Momo grapples anew with his deferred musical ambitions and dreams for Junie’s future in America, Cassia finally begins to wrestle with a shocking act of brutality from years ago. For Momo to fulfill his promise, he must make one last desperate attempt to reunite all three family members before Junie’s birthday—even if it means bringing painful family secrets to light.
Swimming Back to Trout River is a “symphony of a novel” (BookPage) that weaves together the stories of Junie, Momo, Cassia, and Dawn—a talented violinist from Momo’s past—while depicting their heartbreak and resilience, tenderly revealing the hope, compromises, and abiding ingenuity that make up the lives of immigrants. Feng’s debut is “filled with tragedy yet touched with life-affirming passion” (Kirkus Reviews, starred review), and “Feng weaves a plot both surprising and inevitable, with not a word to spare” (Booklist, starred review).
adbl_web_anon_alc_button_suppression_t1
Critic reviews
"Nancy Wu has a versatile voice and is exactly the type of narrator this intergenerational novel needs. Junie is a Chinese girl who is growing up in the countryside with her grandparents during the Cultural Revolution. Wu's dexterity is on full display as she transitions from male to female characters across a range of ages. Her changes in pitch, accent, and timbre help listeners visualize Junie; her grandparents; and her parents, Momo and Cassie. Fans of international fiction will find much to admire here. Wu is a master at timing, smoothly shifting from dense description to lively exchanges of dialogue. This intricate story of love, loss, and migration is expertly delivered."
No reviews yet