Cinema Love
(Paperback)
Available Formats
Paperback
Published: 14th May 2024
Hardback
Published: 13th August 2024
Paperback
Published: 29th April 2025
Publishing Details
Cinema Love
By (Author) Jiaming Tang
John Murray Press
John Murray Publishers Ltd
14th May 2024
United Kingdom
Classifications
General
Fiction
Physical Properties
Paperback
304
Width 136mm, Height 214mm, Spine 24mm
315g
Description
'A tender and enrapturing feat of storytelling' Vanessa Chan, author of The Storm We Made
For over thirty years, Old Second and Bao Mei have cobbled together a meagre existence in New York City's Chinatown. But unlike other couples, these two share an unusual past. In rural Fuzhou, before they emigrated, they frequented The Workers' Cinema: a theatre where gay men cruised for love.While classic war films played, Old Second and his fellow countrymen found intimacy in the privacy of the Workers' Cinema's screening rooms. Elsewhere, in the box office, Bao Mei sold movie tickets to closeted men - guarding their secrets and finding her own happiness with the projectionist. But when secrets are unveiled, they set in motion a series of haunting events that propel Old Second and Bao Mei towards an uncertain future in America.Spanning three timelines - contemporary New York, late '80s Chinatown, and post-socialist China - Cinema Love is a voice-driven, tender epic that bridges the interior landscapes of the disenfranchised with the physical, and sometimes foreign, spaces they inhabit.Reviews
Lush, romantic, daring, and filled with indelible characters, Cinema Love is not just an extraordinary debut, but a future classic. In this story of forbidden queer love and the cost of secrets, Jiaming Tang gives voice, humanity, and dignity to people so often rendered invisible by society. Here, Chinese laborers, factory workers, seamstresses, nail technicians, and cooks take glorious center stage, their lives and deepest yearnings made epic. I absolutely loved this book and couldn't stop reading -- Jessamine Chan, author of THE SCHOOL FOR GOOD MOTHERS
Cinema Love grasps you tightly in the heart, then does not let go. A tender and enrapturing feat of storytelling, this novel unwraps the brightest and darkest moments of queer love and all its humanity. The stories of the men and women in this book swallowed me whole, and I will never forget them -- Vanessa Chan, author of THE STORM WE MADE
A staggering feat of storytelling, epic in its reach yet so intimate and nuanced in its ability to break the heart of its reader. Tang honours the many stripes of his characters' journeys with forensic clarity, compassion and authenticity -- Wiz Wharton, author of GHOST GIRL, BANANA
I loved it. Cinema Love fizzes with energy. The characters are rich and warm and the prose is perfect. Jiaming Tang is a remarkable new voice -- Fiona Mozley, author of ELMET
A beautifully told story about the delicate tension between love and longing, the crisis of loneliness, and the price of regret. With a wise, masterful compassion, Cinema Love announces Jiaming Tang as an essential new voice in literature. I absolutely loved this book
-- Emily Habeck, author of SHARK HEARTAuthor Bio
Jiaming Tang is a queer immigrant writer. He holds an MFA from the University of Alabama, and his writing has appeared in such publications as AGNI, Lit Hub, Joyland Magazine, and elsewhere. He is a 2022-23 Center for Fiction Emerging Writer Fellow and lives in Brooklyn, New York. Cinema Love is his first novel.
