Rating: **** 4 stars

Pamela Grant,
When a Girl is Born.
Oxford University Press, 1993 (paperback 2001)

China 1897 - and no one is happy when a female child is born. A girl is a burden to her family while a boy brings honour and security to his parents in their old age. But the winds of change are blowing through China. When 14-year-old Ko-chin marries a reformer, her life takes a direction that she could never have anticipated. At first she is unsettled by the requirement to abandon the role for which she had been trained but eventually Ko-chin finds a voice that is even more radical than her husband’s; ‘we have become such slaves to the past that we’ve forgotten how to meet changed circumstances…’
Ko-chin’s story of resilience, adaptation and personal growth highlights the contradictions of a revolutionary movement that condemns traditional practices but stops short of allowing the women to travel freely outside the home.

This first novel is informed by Grant’s extensive knowledge and understanding of this period in Chinese history and its reverberations through the century. Her characters are memorable and the images of the dying empire are realised in clear prose style. A compelling story well told.

Nikki Gamble