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Cover of Do Not Say We Have Nothing

How long does it take to read Do Not Say We Have Nothing?

Madeleine Thien

Do Not Say We Have Nothing by Madeleine Thien takes about 8 hours 48 minutes to read at 250 words a minute.

About 8 hours 48 minutes

A week or two of reading

First published 2016. 480 pages, about 132,000 words.

18 days at 30 minutes a day

Estimate based on 275 words per page.

At other speeds

Slow, 150 words a minute 14 hours 40 minutes
Average, 250 words a minute 8 hours 48 minutes
Fast, 400 words a minute 5 hours 30 minutes

The page count is the median across 9 editions, so your copy may differ. How we calculate.

About the book

"In a single year, my father left us twice. The first time, to end his marriage, and the second, when he took his own life. I was ten years old."Master storyteller Madeleine Thien takes us inside an extended family in China, showing us the lives of two successive generations--those who lived through Mao's Cultural Revolution and their children, who became the students protesting in Tiananmen Square. At the center of this epic story are two young women, Marie and Ai-Ming. Through their relationship Marie strives to piece together the tale of her fractured family in present-day Vancouver, seeking answers in the fragile layers of their collective story. Her quest will unveil how Kai, her enigmatic father, a talented pianist, and Ai-Ming's father, the shy and brilliant composer, Sparrow, along with the violin prodigy Zhuli, were forced to reimagine their artistic and private selves during China's political campaigns and how their fates reverberate through the years with lasting consequences.

Subjects: Social life and customs, Families, Intergenerational relations, Family Life, FICTION, FICTION / Family Life

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