This novel straddles a young girl’s identity crisis between eastern and western cultures

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River East, River West is a fictional take on China’s early modernization and its impact on social dynamics. In Aube Rey Lescure’s debut novel she tells the complex story of identity, culture, and societal change in contemporary China. At the heart of the story is 14-year-old Alva Collins, a young girl born and raised in Shanghai in 2007 to her free-spirited American mother, Sloan, and an absent Chinese father.

Alva’s dual identity as a bi-cultural individual growing up betweenEast and West is one of the focal points.It dives into her struggle with questions of belonging and cultural heritage, all while navigating the complexities of her mother’s unconventional lifestyle. The novel also jumps back in time, to 1985 to be exact, to share the root of Alva’s diversity beginning with the relationship that flowered between her mother and her father, Lu Fang.

There are points where the novel extends beyond Alva’s journey and explores themes of societal change and historical context. Set against the backdrop of China’s rapid modernization and globalization in the mid-2000s, Rey Lescure paints a vivid portrait of a nation in flux, where traditional values clash with the allure of Western influence and economic prosperity.

You can get your copy onAmazon.