Swimming Back to Trout River by Linda Rui-Feng

Swimming Back to Trout River by Linda Rui-Feng is a debut novel, longlisted for the Giller Prize.

The story begins and ends with Junie, the child of Momo and Cassia. We meet her as she is travelling by train to Trout River, the village where her paternal grandparents live, where she will stay until her parents come to retrieve her. Momo has already gone to America, and now Cassia is to follow.

The story flows seamlessly from the past to the present. From 1961, Momo’s university years, and his relationship with a young musician, to 1966 and the Cultural Revolution. During this time anything from the Western world is prohibited, and books and musical instruments are destroyed by the Red Guards.

Cassia was a nurse at a factory when she met Momo. “People said her generation would be the nuts and bolts of the glorious socialist Motherland.” Cassia, though, is only looking for an escape from her past. For five years she performed her role perfectly, until the day she met Momo.

Their child is born – with a birth defect, the lower limbs below her knees have not formed. Cassia cannot bear to look at this child, but Momo loves her regardless, with all his might. Momo looks ahead to the future, and when it is possible for him to go to America in 1981, he believes it will be a place where his daughter can also have a future despite her disability. Momo finds a position at a university in Chimney Bluffs where he begins to establish a life for himself, as he waits for his family to arrive.

Woven into this is the story of Dawn, also in America, where she has made a career with her music. And that of another young musician whose music interests Momo enough that he begins a correspondence with her.

Eventually, Cassia cannot avoid coming to America any longer. She is to be reunited with Momo, and Junie will follow in time. Junie is happy in Trout River and has thrived with her loving grandparents. She cannot imagine her life any place else.

Swimming Back to Trout River is beautifully written, meandering from one character to another, all coming together in a well-orchestrated, poignant, and thought-provoking novel.