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the hypothetical bookclub

Detail from the cover of The Good Women of China.

If you had a book club, what would you make them read this month?

The Good Women of China, by Xinran. I'd never heard of that book outside my mum handing it to me and saying, I think you'd probably like this. But it needs to be read by more people. It's an incredible book and I've read nothing like it. It's about women who are completely unseen by society. They're in China, they're living domestic lives, they're living behind closed doors. They're living in worlds that we think have already disappeared. We think that inequality like that no longer exists, but it does. It's an important book, and I think there's no point in reading a book if it isn't important. Life's too short.

Abigail Tarttelin, author of Golden Boy, as told to Globe Books

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