In an endeavour to read more historical fiction written by a diverse range of voices, Madeleine Thien’s Do Not Say We Have Nothing came across my radar at the end of 2025, and I added it to my list of books to read in 2026. This novel won the Scotiabank Giller Prize in 2016 and the Governor General’s Literary Award in 2017, and was shortlisted for the Booker Prize in 2016. If there is one thing I am looking for more, it is books from the longlists and shortlists of various literary awards. There are a few historical fiction novels I have picked up in recent months that I feel called to read, but other commitments have taken precedence, like How We Disappeared by Jing-Jing Lee and The Mountains Sing by Nguyễn Phan Quế Mai. I didn’t want this to be the case with Do Not Say We Have Nothing, and, if anything, I wanted this novel to serve as my motivation to return to historical fiction reads. I am a chapter in, and I am so glad I listened to my heart when it said it wanted to read it.

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 centre 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. With maturity and sophistication, humour and beauty, Thien has crafted a novel that is at once intimate and grandly political, rooted in the details of life inside China yet transcendent in its universality.

I love books that balance the sombre and tense events of revolution and upheaval with music. I fell in love with this dynamic when I read The Cellist of Sarajevo by Steven Galloway. I find that it really draws out the human emotion and tremors of life, juxtaposing heavy scenes and themes with the beauty and power of music. Something that we think is delicate, fleeting, or whimsical proves to be something stronger, more permanent, and willing to fight back. I am excited to finish Do Not Say We Have Nothing and really get exposed to the emotive writing, passionate characters, and tense setting of the novel.

I don’t know what it is about historical fiction set during times of great cultural, social, and political shifts, but when they hit right, they can be such immersive and powerful reads. When the novel details the sensory aspects of the event, bringing you further into the story, making you feel like you are standing there and experiencing it for yourself, it makes the read all the more amazing. I cannot wait to get into it, so much so, I am ending this review here so I can put my laptop out of sight. I feel that Do Not Say We Have Nothing is going to be one of those books I can’t stop thinking about long after I have finished it.