Kathy writes: I’ve just finished The Girl Who Played Go by Shan Sa. It’s a haunting and educational read: a window into the lives of a feisty 16-year old Chinese girl and a jaded Japanese soldier, during the Japanese invasion of Chiang Kai-Chek’s China of the 1920s. The girl is, unusually for the time, an exceptional and obsessive player of go, the ancient Chinese board game of war strategy. Each game can last days and in this book, the violence and excitement of the game are juxtaposed with the serenity and spirituality of the locality – the ‘Square of a Thousand Winds’ in a small village.

The girl’s opponent, the Japanese soldier, is actually a spy in Chinese disguise. So the silent intensity of the game in the baking heat of the Manchurian summer evolves into something entirely different. The many subplots include the Chinese student underground plotting against the Japanese invasion – and The Girl Who Plays Go knows nothing of her opponent’s part in her friends’ capture.

Although I finished this book several days ago, it is still in the back of my mind. It’s a Chinese brocade capsule of stillness and screams, love and hate, dust and blood. It’s made me thirst for more of Chinese/Japanese history, culture, family life, and food. And especially more Go.

A fantastic book - and watch out for the ending.