Flowers in the Ashes: A Novel of Youth, Ideals, and Betrayal (Witness to an Era)

This paperback contains both volumes of Flowers in the Ashes.

Beijing, spring 1989. Chu Guang is approaching graduation with two hopes: to build a life in the city and to find a love he does not have to pretend.

Drawn to Li Hua, his mentor's niece, he visits the professor's home hoping to see her. There he encounters a different demand for honesty. His mentor has signed a petition calling for the release of political prisoners, and officials want him to repent. He refuses.

As student protests gather momentum, private ambitions and public convictions become harder to keep apart. Chu Guang and the people around him must contend with loyalties, desires and fears that do not always fit the principles they profess. Love offers no simple refuge from the pressures reshaping their lives.

Flowers in the Ashes is a historical literary novel about young people caught in the upheaval of 1989. Through their relationships and choices, Leo Mai explores the distance between believing in an honest life and finding the courage—or the means—to live one.