DREAMING IN CHINESE Mandarin Lessons in Life, Love, and Language

Deborah Fallows and her husband lived in China for several years, during which they struggled to communicate in Chinese and to understand Chinese culture and sensibilities. In this book, Fallows chronicles her journey with her husband through the Chinese language, with descriptions of its history and written characters and an exploration of the language as a reflection of the society as a whole. Narrator Catherine Byers deftly communicates the intricacies and particularities of the language. The accuracy of her Chinese pronunciation and her demonstrations of tones seem authentic, a factor that is important given what Fallows tells us about the difficulty of Chinese pronunciation and the travails she experienced as a result of her missteps in this regard. S.E.G. © AudioFile 2013, Portland, Maine [Published: NOVEMBER 2013]