BookDragon Books for the Diverse Reader

In post-Mao China, Katherine, a young American, teaches English to a group of Chinese workers. Her life becomes especially entwined with two of her students, Zebra and Lion Head, eventually resulting in a disastrous love triangle. But Zebra and Katherine’s relationship survives, and eventually, they prove to be each other’s salvation.

Katherine is Min’s debut novel, following her more successful memoir, Red Azalea. The raw urgency that served her nonfiction so well gets rather diluted in her fiction, which too often is marred by soap-opera-ish antics.

Review: “Asian American Titles,” What Do I Read Next? Multicultural Literature, Gale Research, 1997

Readers: Adult

Published: 1995