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Signature Editions is a literary press with an eclectic list of quality fiction, non-fiction, poetry and drama. Visit our website at signature-editions.com.
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ISBN #ISBN 9781897109427
$19.95
Trade Paper
Signature Editions is a literary press with an eclectic list of quality fiction, non-fiction, poetry and drama. Visit our website at signature-editions.com.
It Is Just That Your House Is So Far Away
Book Marketplace
By Steve Noyes
Divorced, adrift, and fast approaching forty, Jeff Mott has come to China, fascinated by the culture and the language. He secures a teaching post in a small town north of Beijing,where he falls in love with a young woman, Wang Bian Fu; however, as they get to know each other, Bian Fu’s family life and emotions seem increasingly more complex and disturbing—perhaps more than he can handle. Nonetheless, he asks her to marry him. And then he learns the truth about his Chinese fiancée—a truth concealed behind her considerable deception. His heart divided, he must make a choice, and flies back to Canada, promising to return. Separated, the lovers continue to plan, but Jeff wonders, is it Bian Fu that he loves? or China? or is it that he has imagined both of them as he wishes, not as they are? Poignant and ironic, and searchingly funny, It Is Just That Your House Is So Far Away delivers a Beijing love story and a vision of 1990s China on the edge of globalism.
“A bittersweet song to Beijing, to the Chinese language, to the Chinese, It Is Just That Your House Is So Far Away is foremost a lovers’ tune, tender and sad. Steve Noyes knows China and knows the human heart, and entwines them beautifully. A lovely, truthful novel, sung without a false note.” — Charles Foran
“Imagine Romeo and Juliet in mainland China with upset families, divergent cultures, public disapproval and a suspicious government — a complicated mess for two ardent lovers…What makes this novel special is that it goes past the Romeo and Juliet theme to all the daunting complications bicultural couples face. Jeff and Bian Fu’s situation is so daunting that many readers won’t know which outcome they’re cheering for.” — Winnipeg Free Press
Steve Noyes has published six books of poetry and fiction. It Is Just That Your House Is So Far Away is his first novel. Raised in Winnipeg, Noyes is a graduate of UBC’s MFA writing program and Carleton’s journalism school, and has published over 100 poems, stories and reviews in such magazines and newspapers as The Malahat Review, The Fiddlehead, Event, The Globe and Mail, Queen’s Quarterly, and The Vancouver Sun.