Author Biography

Born in Shanghai, Linda Rui Feng has lived in San Francisco, New York, and Toronto. She is a graduate of Harvard and Columbia Universities and is currently a professor of Chinese cultural history at the University of Toronto. She has been twice awarded a MacDowell Fellowship for her fiction, and her prose and poetry have appeared in journals such as The Fiddlehead, The Kenyon Review, Santa Monica Review, and Washington Square Review. Swimming Back to Trout River is her first novel. Visit LindaRuiFeng.com to learn more.
 

Review

"With lean prose and assured storytelling, this debut novel describes a family fractured by geography, ambition and the ripple effects of China's tumultuous 20th-century history."—NEW YORK TIMES BOOK REVIEW (NEW AND NOTEWORTHY)

"Against the backdrop of China's Cultural Revolution, a husband and wife are afraid to share their deepest longings and regrets. With disarmingly quiet prose, Feng digs beneath Cassia's and Momo's reluctance to mine their emotional depths as they struggle to grasp their individual experiences as well as their fractured relationship. Filled with tragedy yet touched with life-affirming passion."—KIRKUS REVIEWS (STARRED REVIEW)

"Feng's lithe debut moves with grace from Communist China to San Francisco and the Great Plains, and from the 1960s to the 1980s, as it follows four interlocked lives....With the lightest of touches, Feng vividly portrays the experience of living in China during Mao's rule as well as the pressures of being a new immigrant. Looking deeply into the 'invisible mesh' that links her characters' lives, Feng weaves a plot both surprising and inevitable, with not a word to spare."—BOOKLIST (STARRED REVIEW)

"Feng's striking debut novel chronicles what happens to a young Chinese family in the wake of the Cultural Revolution. Feng captures humor and grief in equal measures...and she elegantly references Chinese concepts of fate and luck while building toward a poignant conclusion. This resonates from page one."—PUBLISHERS WEEKLY

"Hard to put down, this beautifully written novel is filled with optimism…Feng makes her mark in this promising debut, and she successfully weaves in several unexpected plot twists as the narrative unfolds, leaving readers to long for a sequel."—LIBRARY JOURNAL

"During the tumultuous years of China's Cultural Revolution, 10-year-old Junie receives a letter from her parents in the United States promising to come retrieve her before her 12th birthday, but Junie doesn't want to leave her grandparents or the Chinese countryside. Her reluctance could derail her parents' plan, especially since long-buried family secrets and their individual struggles have already driven them apart."—GOOD HOUSEKEEPING (25 Best Historical Fiction Books to Take You Back in Time)

"Sensitively exploring themes of grief, hope and resilience, Swimming Back to Trout River is a symphony of a novel that is operatic in scope and elevated by Feng's artful writing."—BOOKPAGE

"Feng's debut is about a ten-year-old girl in a small Chinese village in 1986 whose parents live in America and have promised to return by her twelfth birthday. A novel about longing and secrets and immigrant compromises, one Garth Greenwell calls one of the most beautiful debuts he's read in years."—ELECTRIC LIT (44 BOOKS BY WOMEN OF COLOR TO READ IN 2021)

"Linda Rui Feng's Swimming Back to Trout River is a beautifully written, poignant exploration of family, art, culture, immigration and most of all, love. I was swept away by Feng's fierce intelligence and keen insight even as her characters captured my heart with their tender hopes and bold actions. A gorgeous book that I couldn't put down."—JEAN KWOK, author of Searching for Sylvie Lee and Girl in Translation

"What can account for the astonishing emotional force of this debut novel? Maybe it's that Linda Rui Feng understands her characters with an intimacy one seldom encounters, or the sense one has that she loves them so much. Or maybe it's Feng's exceedingly rare gift for putting language to feelings so profound, and so exquisitely observed, that they escape all readymade names. Everything in this gorgeously orchestrated novel surprises, everything outraces expectation. Swimming Back to Trout River is one of the most beautiful debuts I have read in years."—GARTH GREENWELL, author of Cleanness and What Belongs to You

"Swimming Back to Trout River is notable for the grace of its prose and the harmony of its intertwined narratives, but the essential 'beat' of this wonderful fiction is the heartbeat of its characters, so richly and lovingly brought to life."—PETER HO DAVIES, author of The Fortunes

"A beautiful and haunting story about a family's journey, a child's persistence, a couple's love. We all desire more, don't we? Yet we can't always predict what's on the other side. I felt immersed, taken back to a tumultuous and strange time that was full of inconceivable moments and hidden brightness. Feng writes with unflinching grace. She is exploratory yet precise, a narrative powerhouse. Needless to say, the music is poignant."—WEIKE WANG, author of Chemistry 

"An impressive and thoroughly satisfying debut....This book offers profound insight into human longing: how lives become intertwined and complicated by desire, fear, and memory. Music and its riveting power connects Feng's characters through space and time. The period details are seamlessly woven, resulting in a beautifully crafted work of art with a story that will linger long after the turning of the final page."—ANN Y.K. CHOI, author of Kay's Lucky Coin Variety

Review Quote

"With lean prose and assured storytelling, this debut novel describes a family fractured by geography, ambition and the ripple effects of China''s tumultuous 20th-century history." -- NEW YORK TIMES BOOK REVIEW (NEW AND NOTEWORTHY) "Against the backdrop of China''s Cultural Revolution, a husband and wife are afraid to share their deepest longings and regrets. With disarmingly quiet prose, Feng digs beneath Cassia''s and Momo''s reluctance to mine their emotional depths as they struggle to grasp their individual experiences as well as their fractured relationship. Filled with tragedy yet touched with life-affirming passion." -- KIRKUS REVIEWS (STARRED REVIEW) "Feng''s lithe debut moves with grace from Communist China to San Francisco and the Great Plains, and from the 1960s to the 1980s, as it follows four interlocked lives....With the lightest of touches, Feng vividly portrays the experience of living in China during Mao''s rule as well as the pressures of being a new immigrant. Looking deeply into the ''invisible mesh'' that links her characters'' lives, Feng weaves a plot both surprising and inevitable, with not a word to spare." -- BOOKLIST (STARRED REVIEW) "Feng''s striking debut novel chronicles what happens to a young Chinese family in the wake of the Cultural Revolution. Feng captures humor and grief in equal measures...and she elegantly references Chinese concepts of fate and luck while building toward a poignant conclusion. This resonates from page one." -- PUBLISHERS WEEKLY "Hard to put down, this beautifully written novel is filled with optimism...Feng makes her mark in this promising debut, and she successfully weaves in several unexpected plot twists as the narrative unfolds, leaving readers to long for a sequel." -- LIBRARY JOURNAL "During the tumultuous years of China''s Cultural Revolution, 10-year-old Junie receives a letter from her parents in the United States promising to come retrieve her before her 12th birthday, but Junie doesn''t want to leave her grandparents or the Chinese countryside. Her reluctance could derail her parents'' plan, especially since long-buried family secrets and their individual struggles have already driven them apart." -- GOOD HOUSEKEEPING (25 Best Historical Fiction Books to Take You Back in Time) "Sensitively exploring themes of grief, hope and resilience, Swimming Back to Trout River is a symphony of a novel that is operatic in scope and elevated by Feng''s artful writing." -- BOOKPAGE "Feng''s debut is about a ten-year-old girl in a small Chinese village in 1986 whose parents live in America and have promised to return by her twelfth birthday. A novel about longing and secrets and immigrant compromises, one Garth Greenwell calls one of the most beautiful debuts he''s read in years." -- ELECTRIC LIT (44 BOOKS BY WOMEN OF COLOR TO READ IN 2021) "Linda Rui Feng''s Swimming Back to Trout River is a beautifully written, poignant exploration of family, art, culture, immigration and most of all, love. I was swept away by Feng''s fierce intelligence and keen insight even as her characters captured my heart with their tender hopes and bold actions. A gorgeous book that I couldn''t put down." --JEAN KWOK, author of Searching for Sylvie Lee and Girl in Translation "What can account for the astonishing emotional force of this debut novel? Maybe it''s that Linda Rui Feng understands her characters with an intimacy one seldom encounters, or the sense one has that she loves them so much. Or maybe it''s Feng''s exceedingly rare gift for putting language to feelings so profound, and so exquisitely observed, that they escape all readymade names. Everything in this gorgeously orchestrated novel surprises, everything outraces expectation. Swimming Back to Trout River is one of the most beautiful debuts I have read in years." --GARTH GREENWELL, author of Cleanness and What Belongs to You " Swimming Back to Trout River is notable for the grace of its prose and the harmony of its intertwined narratives, but the essential ''beat'' of this wonderful fiction is the heartbeat of its characters, so richly and lovingly brought to life." --PETER HO DAVIES, author of The Fortunes "A beautiful and haunting story about a family''s journey, a child''s persistence, a couple''s love. We all desire more, don''t we? Yet we can''t always predict what''s on the other side. I felt immersed, taken back to a tumultuous and strange time that was full of inconceivable moments and hidden brightness. Feng writes with unflinching grace. She is exploratory yet precise, a narrative powerhouse. Needless to say, the music is poignant." --WEIKE WANG, author of Chemistry "An impressive and thoroughly satisfying debut....This book offers profound insight into human longing: how lives become intertwined and complicated by desire, fear, and memory. Music and its riveting power connects Feng''s characters through space and time. The period details are seamlessly woven, resulting in a beautifully crafted work of art with a story that will linger long after the turning of the final page." --ANN Y.K. CHOI, author of Kay''s Lucky Coin Variety

Excerpt from Book

Two Children of Trout River Two Children of Trout River THE TRAIN THAT WAS DELIVERING Junie to Trout River was just pulling out of the station and gathering speed, and already the compartment was filling up with cigarette smoke and the gregarious sound of sunflower seeds being cracked open. This was 1981, when trips traversing the length of China took days, and the passengers, having waited for that first lurch of the train, now sprang into action. They poured each other hot water for tea from a communal thermos stabilized inside a metal ring beneath the window where Junie sat on the lap of her mother, Cassia. Cassia too was set into motion in her own way. She began to tell Junie over and over again to listen to her grandparents, as if some urgent and collaborative task awaited them at the end of the journey. The cadence of that litany-- listen to them, they know what''s good for you --merged with the rhythmic rattle of the train until the two sounds became indistinguishable. To Junie, who was five and wasn''t otherwise prone to premonitions of loss, it seemed as though something unprecedented was about to happen, and it made her almost afraid, until the scenery outside the window began to change. Junie had never seen so many dewy rivers and paddies, or so many trembling shades of green, and they exerted a tug on her that the snowy landscapes of her birthplace had never done. Throughout their trip, passengers in adjacent bunks, noticing Junie''s empty trouser legs, asked Cassia about them, believing themselves to be striking up a conversation with a somber woman who needed company. But Cassia pretended not to hear them, and after this happened a couple of times, no one asked again. She knew that if her husband Momo were here, he would never ignore these proddings. He always educated his inquisitors, sometimes even chided them in outbursts, saying something like, Many forms of human locomotion are possible . Momo was a believer in possibilities. That was the best thing about him, but also the worst. Earlier that year, Momo left for graduate school in America, and it was understood that in a year or two Cassia would follow. The night before his departure, he managed to borrow a violin that someone, somewhere, had made into a size that fit a child''s fingers. It seemed to Cassia that an absurd amount of craft went into making such a miniature instrument--something that even for adults was a luxury, and even contraband not long ago, during the Cultural Revolution. The fact that it was made in the first place presumed a kind of child prodigy who would, against all odds, make all this arcane skill worthwhile. But Momo didn''t think it absurd, and his impending absence from Junie only made him more determined to start her on music--not just any kind of music, but the kind that had shaped him in his university years in a way Cassia didn''t fully understand. In the wee hours of the morning before his departure, he insisted on giving Junie a last-minute violin lesson. After some cajoling and a tussle, it ended in a tantrum and tears. Cassia thought his desperation pitiable--what had he been thinking?? But she also knew she could never match his aspirations for their daughter, who was born with nothing below her knees--no tibias, no feet. Where her legs ended, the skin was smooth and the shapes perfectly rounded and unapologetic. But Cassia rarely touched her there. Unlike Momo, right now, she was determined to accomplish something very practical: to deliver Junie into the hands of her in-laws, to ensconce Junie in Trout River where Momo had grown up, and to make herself dispensable as a guardian. Whatever Junie would become--and Cassia could not fathom it any more than she could her own future--it had to start with this. Outside the rattling train compartment, the gleaming railroad tracks merged and separated like undulating steel snakes. She pressed her mouth close to Junie''s ear, as if she was sharing a conspiracy with her: "Remember that time when your dad was little and Grandma thought a tiger snatched him up?" Junie''s eyes lit up with laughter, as if she''d been reminded of a successful stunt pulled off by someone her age. "Don''t laugh," Cassia said. "Promise to never make your grandparents worried like that." Before they boarded the train, Cassia had scraped her memory for tidbits from Momo''s boyhood--things they''d talked about during their courtship and the early years of marriage. She was planning to impart these tidbits to Junie, through repetition and review, to allow for a seamless transition into this new ecosystem and new life. She knew she had a lot to compete with--the scenery outside, the chatter and laughter of strangers inside. Over the rest of the journey, she began to take more liberties with the stories, until they became expansive like a rustic saga. It now involved not just tigers (too remote and menacing) but also sparrows (which he caught during the lean years), plus a river turtle that he befriended (to show Junie that not all animals were food). It was the closest Cassia had felt to Momo in a long time. After all, wasn''t it true that to love someone is to figure out how to tell yourself their story? She could almost see him in his prepubescence, running through the feral paths and brimming with vitality that had no place to go. When she imagined him like this, unformed and far from invincible, it was much easier to forgive him for his absurd optimism. As the train trundled south and crossed first the Yellow River, then the Yangtze, and eventually entered the long mountain tunnel toward Trout River, Cassia even thought that this was how the two of them might start over, if starting over was still possible. On the day that Cassia was to return up north without Junie, she took a walk over a stone bridge with Junie riding on her back. It was autumn, and underneath them, the river that gave the small town its name gurgled with shifting pitches and rhythms in a way that Junie thought resembled singing. She shook Cassia''s shoulder to point this out, but Cassia did not seem to relish the river, or anything at all. Cassia stood out against the fluid movements and chatter of Junie''s grandparents, more like a dam than a rampart. Junie could see that something about Cassia made her not belong in Trout River. But the way the world was laid out here amid the water and leaves made sense to Junie in a way that life with Momo and Cassia did not--for example, how Cassia was always worried about something they couldn''t see. Or the way Momo pressed Junie''s fingers down on the cold violin strings even though she told him it hurt--and the way he got angry when she fought off The Violin Monster and broke it by accident. For the time being --this was what the adults all said about her being here, but Junie didn''t think that this was a temporary arrangement. She heard this in Cassia''s tone, in the urgency and finality of her admonition: They know what''s good for you. Junie did not cry when they said good-bye to Cassia. That night when she began life with her grandparents, Junie watched Grandpa wash his feet before going to bed. For most of his life, Grandpa had been a carpenter and tinkerer, though only his age, and not his occupation, was evident from his submerged feet. Junie scooted over toward him on her knees, reached into the well-worn tub where his feet were planted, and poked at the gnarled sinews and bones in them. "Your legs grew roots, Grandpa," Junie said, "like those trees by the river!" He looked at her, then down at his own feet. "Do you think my legs will grow roots like yours, when I''m older?" Grandpa now looked over at Grandma, and the look they exchanged was one passed between long-married couples that allowed them to synchronize backstories and action plans. Grandma shuffled over to scoop up Junie from the floor. She plopped her down onto her knees. "It doesn''t work like that," she told Junie, but the question seemed to have put her in a pensive, though cheerful, mood. As Grandpa dried his feet, she told Junie that the universe was full of transformations, some of which we could see, but most of which we couldn''t. She said that the philosopher-poets from ages ago talked about zaohua , the Fashioner of Creatures, the Shaping Mutator, the unseen forces that turned animals into plants, minerals into animals, and people into anything imaginable. These metamorphoses were more creative than we can put names to, because they erased forms but invented new ones too. Yes, Grandma answered, the philosopher-poets thought that a person could turn into a cricket''s arm. Yes, maybe even a mouse''s liver!--in a manner of speaking. "But the idea is that we don''t always know, you see, what the Great Transformation will turn us into," she told Junie. It would be years before Junie could fully understand what this meant. Seven, to be exact. Near the center of the village, the river changed all year long. Sometimes the current had a palpable heaviness to its texture and its sound too. Sometimes the river was so flat and opaque that when she rode on the back seat of Grandpa''s bicycle as they crossed the stone bridge, Junie could imagine tossing a pebble at it and thought it just might glide clear across the surface. At other times, her eyes got caught by some boy her age squatting at the river''s edge, slapping a twig in the water and watching the splashes rise up and disappear into the channel. Who can say h

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