This is an intriguing find from the Mary Scott Nature Park Little Free Library in Atlanta, GA. It is an uncorrected proof. The cover of the corrected edition published in 2016 does not match this particular book's cover.

From the back cover:

Shanghai, 1930s. Shen Shijun, a young engineer, has fallen in love with his colleague, the beautiful Gu Manzhen. He is determined to resist his family’s efforts to match him with his wealthy cousin so that he can marry her. But dark circumstances—a lustful brother-in-law, a treacherous sister, a family secret—force the two young lovers apart.

As Manzhen and Shijun go on their separate paths, they lose track of one another, and their lives become filled with feints and schemes, missed connections and tragic misunderstandings. At every turn, societal expectations seem to thwart their prospects for happiness. Still, Manzhen and Shijun dare to hold out hope—however slim—that they might one day meet again. A glamorous, wrenching tale set against the glittering backdrop of an extraordinary city, Half a Lifelong Romance is a beloved classic from one of the essential writers of twentieth-century China.

I also found an edition of this traveling in an international bookcrossing book ray:

www.bookcrossing.com/journal/14348969

I had never heard of Eileen Chang, a Chinese essayist, novelist, and screenwriter, whose works are widely known in the Chinese speaking world. This book is a translation into English of a novel she re-worked over the years, according to translator Karen S. Kingsbury. In her introduction to this proof, Kingsbury relates that the novel was initially inspired by the work of 20th Century American novelist John Phillips Marquand and a screen adaptation of one of his stories. Of aristocratic lineage, Chang was educated bilingually in Shanghai. She gained literary prominence in Japanese-occupied Shanghai between 1943 and 1945. After the Communist takeover of China, Chang immigrated to the US. In the late 1960s and early 1970s, she was rediscovered and her work became popular once again in Taiwan, Hong Kong, Mainland China and Chinese diaspora communities. A realist and modernist writer, Chang built a wartime narrative that countered Chinese government accounts of national salvation through revolution. Also an influential designer of women's clothing, Change died in California in 1995 at the age of 75. A feminist, she was also the survivor of an abusive marriage.

Though Chang wrote in English and translated many of her Chinese works into English, she had reworked this material a few times and so probably decided to leave this final version in Chinese, translator Kingsbury speculates in the introduction. Kingsbury has translated some of Chang's other works. After studying Chinese in Taipei and Chonqing, Kingsbury taught English language and literature at Tunghai University in Taichung for 14 years. Currently a professor of International Studies at Chatham University, Kingsbury wrote her doctoral dissertation for Columbia University on Eileen Chang.

Ang Lee, a director I admire, adapted Chang's novella, "Lust, Caution" into a 2007 Chinese film, also titled "Lust, Caution." I found the film a compelling dissection of a woman's soul. Which is stronger for the particular character Chang chose, ideology or flesh and blood? Read the novella or watch the film.

Though I don't have time to read this, I am glad I picked it up. This was a learning opportunity. I will look for Chang's work now.

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This book has been taken! I hope it has a fine bookcrossing journey!