Thursday, February 03, 2011

CITY OF TRANQUIL LIGHT - Bo Caldwell - Free Book

I was sent a copy of this book from the publisher and found the idea intriguing. I have a friend serving as a missionary in China today, so I'm very interested in the country.

I thought you readers would be interested in it. Here's a conversation the publisher sent to me.

It’s been nearly ten years since your first novel, THE DISTANT LAND OF MY FATHER, was published. What took you so long?

That’s a question I’ve asked myself. Part of the answer is that life intervened. I started the novel in 2002 and wrote perhaps eighty pages, and although I didn’t like them much, I’ve come to accept that mediocre first drafts are often part of my process. In 2004 I was diagnosed with stage-one breast cancer (I’m now healthy and cancer-free), so that fall and the first half of 2005 were given to chemo and radiation. It took another year for my head to clear enough to write fiction, and I returned to the novel in 2006 and finished it two years later. The other part of the answer is easy: I’m a slow writer, something I’ve made peace with.

CITY OF TRANQUIL LIGHT is based on the lives of your grandparents, who were missionaries in China and Taiwan. Where did you draw the line between their experiences and the fictional characters of Will and Katherine?

The biggest difference is that unlike my characters, my grandparents had five children. I chose not to deal with fictional children because they would complicate what felt like an already complex story. Also, my grandparents lived in five different cities in China and worked in Taiwan after the Communist takeover of China. I had my characters settle in one place so that I wouldn’t have to keep rebuilding cities, and I chose to have my characters stay in the United States once they returned because I wanted to focus on what leaving China meant for them, on aging and on their marriage. Finally, while my grandparents’ lives were certainly the primary inspiration for the book, I was also inspired by the lives of other missionaries, and I incorporated parts of their stories as well as my grandparents’. The line between what really happened to any of these people and what I made up or exaggerated is already blurry and, in my experience, will become more so as time passes.

China has played a large role in both of your novels. What does the country mean to you?

China represents a connection to my childhood and to my family. It’s where my grandparents lived most of their lives, and where my mom and her siblings grew up. Family dinners with my grandparents were always Chinese food, and I used to help my mom make chiaotza—steamed dumplings—when I was little. All my aunts and uncles knew how to make them. Everyone in my mom’s family had at least a couple of pieces of Chinese furniture in their homes, and my grandparents had many Chinese items. So in a weird way, there’s also a connection for me between China and home, although I’ve never been there.

In the book, you create a richly detailed vision of China in the early twentieth century. Can you tell us about your historical research into this period of Chinese history?

I’m not a fast researcher but I’m thorough, and I learn much more than what appears in the novel. I started with historical books about China, mostly from the library and used-book stores, then read biographies and autobiographies of missionaries who’d served in China, many of whom my grandparents had known. These books presented history through a narrower lens; I saw how historical events had affected specific individuals and places, which made those events more real and immediate.

How did you decide to tell the story from two different points in time?

Trial and error. The first draft was entirely in Will’s voice, and early readers said the story needed more of Katherine, for which I am very grateful. Someone also mentioned the word journal. At first I thought her journal might appear all in one section, but once I started writing it, I began interspersing it and enjoyed the dialogue that began to take shape. And I learned that rather than echoing or contradicting what Will said, Katherine could enlarge upon it and expand it, which appealed to me.

Will’s and Katherine’s faith brings them together and gives their lives both challenges and purpose. Did writing about their love and faith have any impact on your own marriage and/or faith?

Writing about Katherine’s decline made me value the present with my husband. We’re both healthy and (relatively) young, and I hope we have lots of years ahead of us. But writing about Will watching Katherine’s decline caused me to be more grateful for what we have now. And yes, the novel affected my faith strongly. When I started it in 2002, I tried to imagine my grandfather’s faith and to portray it accurately, but when I returned to the novel in 2006, after chemo and radiation, I no longer wanted that distance. I came to believe that although it was riskier to write about my own faith and what was in my heart—instead of hiding behind my grandfather—it was also more worthwhile.

CITY OF TRANQUIL LIGHT tells the story of two extraordinary lives, filled with hardship and joy. What did you learn in writing about those lives?

I learned about the cost of marriage, which I first saw with my parents. My mom and dad were married for fifty-six years, and when my dad passed away in 2000, I watched my mom lose him then begin her life without him. She was very brave, and although the way in which she did that was remarkable, it still broke my heart. When I read biographies of missionaries, I saw one spouse or the other go through the same thing: this devastating separation after decades of companionship. But I also saw them survive it, as has my mom, and go on to live good lives. If you marry and are fortunate enough to grow old together, one of you will lose the other. But people survive that, and they even thrive, despite that great loss. That inspires and encourages me.

Do you think you could endure the hardships your grandparents endured?

My gut response is no—I love the comforts of home—but we endure what we have to endure, don’t we? I’m also not sure I could have stayed as long as they did and remained so faithful to a calling. But I don’t think my grandparents knew they could do those things, and although I haven’t endured anything like they did, I’ve surprised myself by the ways I’ve gotten through some challenges in my life, and that’s something that excites me: we don’t know how we’ll be in a crisis. We often respond in ways we never dreamed we would, or could, a fact that gives me hope.

Thank you, Bo Caldwell, for a very interesting interview.

Readers, here's a link to the book. By using it when you order, you help support this blog.



Leave a comment for a chance to win a free copy of the book. Please tell us where you live, at least the state or territory. (Comments containing links may be subject to removal by blog owner.)

Void where prohibited; the odds of winning depend on the number of entrants. Entering the giveaway is considered a confirmation of eligibility on behalf of the enterer in accord with these rules and any pertaining local/federal/international laws.

The only notification you’ll receive is the winner post on this blog. So be sure to check back a week from Saturday to see if you won. You will have 6 weeks from the posting of the winners to claim your book.

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23 comments:

Anonymous said...

Sounds like a great read! Sign me up to win!!

Lana Packer
Sierra Vista, AZ

Linda Kish said...

I would love to read this book.

lkish77123 at gmail dot com

fredamans said...

Sounds like a fascinating book! Please enter this gal from Ontario, Canada. Thank you.

windycindy said...

Her book sounds rich with heritage
and history in foreign countries!
I would appreciate being entered in your drawing...
Thanks, Cindi
jchoppes[at]hotmail[dot]com
Illinois

Carol Parsons said...

Bo,
As a former missionary, thank you for sharing your grandparents' story. I love China, even though we served in Ecuador, so stories about that faraway land of mystery are always top on my list. Sign me up for the giveway, please.

Unknown said...

This sounds like a fascinating read. Bo's grandparents must have been blessed with courage and fortitude in their faith to withstand some of their experiences. Thank you for offering this precious book as a giveaway and thank you for the chance to win. I hope I win!

Blessings,
Barb Shelton
barbjan10 at tx dot rr dot com

Unknown said...

I'm sorry to have left the answer to your question out of my comment. I am from Arlington, TX, where we are in the middle of a deep freeze. Brrrr.

Grace & Peace,
Barb Shelton
barbjan10 at tx dot rr dot com

Pam K. said...

"City of Tranquil Light" sounds like a very interesting book, one rather out of the norm. I'd love to win and read it.
Thanks.

pmk56[at]sbcglobal[dot]net
Kansas

Bakersdozen said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
Bakersdozen said...

My grandparents were missionairies in Argentina for a couple of years (and took my mom with them) and my cousin and his wife have been missionairies to Colombia for many years. I am glad that the author is now cancer free and I would love to read this book. I live in S. California.

Claire Koenig said...

I'd love to win! A lot of Chinese culture has been coming my way these days - would enjoy this angle on Chinese life. And good timing with the New Year!

Claire Koenig
San Francisco Bay Area

Anonymous said...

ANGELA C FROM KY WOULD LOVE TO WIN A COPY OF THIS BOOK.

Coolestmommy said...

Sounds like a book I'd enjoy.

coolestmommy2000 at gmail dot com
NE

Unknown said...

Sounds like a very interesting read - sign me up!

Carin Marais a.k.a Marshwriter,
JHB

Anne Payne said...

Such a wonderful conversation. I, too, have close family who have served in China. I would love to read this book. Thank you for the giveaway.

Anne, rural NC

Unknown said...

i love to read about missionaries in China. Thanks for the chance to win. mitzi_wanham[at]yahoo[dot]com
i am in El Mirage, Arizona

karenk said...

please count me in...thanks :)

karenk/from PA
kmkuka at yahoo dot com

Michelle said...

Sounds like a great book, I'm intrigued!

mchapman (at) windstream (dot) net
KY

Anonymous said...

Sounds fascinating, indeed. Please enter my name in the contest!

~Melissa
hismercysurrounding(at)yahoo(dot)com

apple blossom said...

please include me thanks
ND

ABreading4fun [at] gmail [dot] com

Kristen said...

Sounds wonderful. Please enter me
Kristen from WA

Judylynn said...

I would love to read this one!

Judylynn in Tennessee

Karin said...

Count me in!
MN

karin56381 (at) gmail.com