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Longlisted, 2025 Toronto Book Awards
Finalist, Foreword INDIES 2025 Book of the Year
A CBC Best Book of 2025
A sweeping generational story of heartbreak, resilience, and yearning, revealing an insider’s view of the fractured lives of Chinese immigrants and those they leave behind.
Lemei, once a student Red Guard leader in 1960s Shanghai and a journalist at a state newspaper, was involved in a brutal act of violence during the Tiananmen Square protests and lost all hope for her country. Her daughter, Lin, is a student at an American university on a mission to become a true Westerner. She tirelessly erases her birth identity, abandons her Chinese suitor, and pursues a white lover, all the while haunted by the scars of her upbringing. Following China’s meteoric rise, Lemei is slowly dragged into a nationalistic perspective that stuns Lin. Their final confrontation results in tragic consequences, but ultimately, offers hope for a better future. By turns wry and lyrical, The Immortal Woman reminds us to hold tight to our humanity at any cost.
“Chang’s writing is powered by raw emotion … [The Immortal Woman is] a cathartic account of a family buffeted by the winds of modern Chinese history.” — Publishers Weekly
"An inviting, intimate look at ordinary people living through times of momentous change." – Kirkus
“This insightful and satisfying novel offers nuanced looks into the lives of contemporary Chinese families.” — Booklist
“The Immortal Woman … skilfully shows how the immigrant’s dream of leaving their former life behind proves unattainable.” — Winnipeg Free Press
“Defying limits with triumph and aplomb … Chang's lyrical, spinning and dizzying prose creates a vivid sense of the ever-shifting ground beneath her characters' feet.” — 49th Shelf
"An urgent debut that deserves to be read and reread.” – The Ampersand Review
“Dreamy, quietly stunning prose. [Su Chang] has an innate ability to weave together sharp political commentary with deeply human emotions … [The Immortal Woman is a] masterpiece.” — The /tƐmz/ Review
“The Immortal Woman is a promising debut with some unforgettable passages. “ — Washington Independent Review of Books
“Chang’s writing is extremely lyrical … Compelling.” — The Miramichi Reader
“Ambitious and richly rendered.” —Ottawa Review of Books
"A great read, with delicate and engaging prose, well-researched, and mesmerizing in its depictions of the tragic and difficult choices the characters make throughout." —The Seaboard Review
“Su Chang paints a complex picture of intergenerational trauma and the meaning of home.” — Quebec Library Association
"Anyone who wants to understand the depth of the ruptures that characterise today's China — and its diaspora — should read this book." — Literatur. Review