day I pledge to save a hundred lives. I drop my net in the
lake and scoop out a hundred fishes. I place the fishes on
the bank, where they flop and twirl. 'Don't be scared,' I
tell those fishes. 'I am saving you from drowning.' Soon
enough, the fishes grow calm and lie still. Yet, sad to
say, I am always too late. The fishes expire. And because
it is evil to waste anything, I take those dead fishes to
market and I sell them for a good price. With the money I
receive, I buy more nets so I can save more fishes." -
Anonymous
Twelve American tourists join an art expedition that begins
in the Himalayan foothills of China - dubbed the true
Shangri-La - and heads south into the jungles of Burma. But
after the mysterious death of their tour leader, the
carefully laid plans fall apart, and disharmony breaks out
among the pleasure-seekers as they come to discover that
the Burma Road is paved with less-than-honorable
intentions, questionable food, and tribal curses.
And then, on Christmas morning, eleven of the travelers
boat across a misty lake for a sunrise cruise - and
disappear.
Drawing from the current political reality in Burma and
woven with pure confabulation, Amy Tan's picaresque novel
poses the question: How can we discern what is real and
what is fiction, in everything we see? How do we know what
to believe? Saving Fish from Drowning finds sly truth in
the absurd: a reality TV show called Darwin's Fittest, a
repressive regime known as SLORC, two cheroot-smoking twin
children hailed as divinities, and a ragtag tribe hiding in
the jungle - where the sprites of disasterknown as Nats
lurk, as do the specters of the fabled Younger White
Brother and a British illusionist who was not who he was
worshipped to be.
With her signature "idiosyncratic, sympathetic characters,
haunting images, historical complexity, significant
contemporary themes, and suspenseful mystery" (Los Angeles
Times), Amy Tan spins a provocative and mesmerizing tale
about the mind and the heart of the individual, the actions
we choose, the moral questions we might ask ourselves, and
above all, the deeply personal answers we seek when happy
endings are seemingly impossible.
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