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Time travellers’ tales: The Book of Records, by Madeleine Thien, reviewed

Sheltering from a flood in a labyrinthine ‘nothing place’, Lina opens a secret door to neighbouring rooms – where she finds three revered historical figures whose life stories she shares

31 May 2025

9:00 AM

31 May 2025

9:00 AM

The Book of Records Madeleine Thien

Granta, pp.368, 20

Those who have read Madeleine Thien’s bestselling Do Not Say We Have Nothing will recognise The Book of Records as being the title of the manuscript at its heart – a dangerously dissenting history of China. In her latest novel, Thien uses the title to explore the future rather than the past – or so it seems at first.

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