A Concise Chinese-English Dictionary For Lovers

"Zhuang's voice is funny, childlike and wise all at once. Her English improves as the novel and the relationship progress, but it is still, in the end, only language."   -   Susan Salter Reynolds, The Los Angeles Times

Zhuang – or “Z,” to tongue-tied foreigners – has come to London to study English, but finds herself adrift, trapped in a cycle of cultural gaffes and grammatical mishaps. Then she meets an Englishman who changes everything, leading her into a world of self-discovery. She soon realizes that, in the West, “love” does not always mean the same as in China, and that you can learn all the words in the English language and still not understand your lover. And as the novel progresses with steadily improving grammar and vocabulary, Z's evolving voice makes her quest for comprehension all the more poignant. 

"Z proves a keen observer of life in the West. (…) While Dictionary initially seems a fast, breezy read, don't be so easily entertained as to miss the many nuances. Just like the single-word entry markers, beyond the most obvious definitions are deeper, more satisfying meanings."   -   Terry Hong, San Francisco Chronicle

With sparkling wit, Xiaolu Guo has created an utterly original novel in A Concise Chinese-English Dictionary for Lovers about identity, language and the cultural divide.