It takes 18 years for Lin Kong to divorce his long-suffering wife, whom he felt forced to marry, and marry the woman he believes he loves. Almost every year, he takes his wife to the court near their country home. Every year she says she will divorce him and yet at the court she changes her mind. Meanwhile, Manna, his girlfriend, waits first impatiently, then with determined resignation. Bear in mind, they are not allowed to consumate their love, nor even touch with affection or see each other outside of the hospital where they both work. Such are the strictures of communist China in the 1980s. 

You would think that this makes for a tedious story where nothing much happens for a long time and you would be right about the latter. Yet it is not tedious and the few things that happen are significant and add enough flavour to keep the reader going. I enjoyed the detailed insight into Lin Kong and Manna's thoughts and feelings. 

Ha Jin manages to make an almost alien culture that I've only had brushes with, into something familiar. He shows as that people in a communist culture are just like people anywhere else. He writes with a simplicity that is refreshing and matches the story perfectly. He also kept it short, which increased its poignancy. 

I loved how environmentally-friendly China used to be. Hospital workers, and I assume elsewhere as well, kept their own eating utensils in the cafeteria to use and wash after meals. I was reminded, however, how far from my ancestral culture I am and made me think again, what really constitutes racial belonging.