This is a story about escape and reconstruction. On the eve of the college entrance examination, Lu Ming tore up his test papers and fled into the rainy night. When he woke up, he found himself on a deserted island in an ink painting. Here, there is no countdown to the college entrance examination, only tides and monsoons; there are no expectations from parents, only bonfires built by one's own hands and fish caught. He rebuilt the order of existence in the wilderness and the order of his heart in silence. When the world quieted down, he finally heard his inner voice. This is a healing epic about how a young man on the verge of collapse can wash away his anxiety and regain his life through a journey to a desert island.
Reader comments
Origin: Written to the boy who collapsed in the middle of the night
The birth of this novel stems from my most real heartache as a father.
My son is a freshman this year. Looking back at his senior year in high school, it was a time filled with test papers, rankings and anxiety. As a father, I see it in my eyes and feel pain in my heart. I watched his tired back in the middle of the night countless times, watching him collapse because of an unsolvable problem, but I didn't know what to say to share his burden.
I couldn't take the exam for him, nor could I bear the pain of growing up for him. So, I picked up the pen.
I wanted to create a world where he—and all kids like him—could escape the suffocating exam room for a while. I wanted to write about a young man who did not fall after a collapse, but was caught by a sea. I want to tell him: life is not only about the college entrance examination, but also about the sound of tides, desert islands, starry sky, and that cat that only rubs against you on a snowy night.
"The Sound of the Tide Washes away the Sorrow of Youth" is a belated hug written by me as a father to my son. I hope every child who feels suffocated under pressure can find an outlet to breathe here.
Origin: Written to the boy who collapsed in the middle of the night The birth of this novel stems from my most real heartache as a father. My son is a freshman this year. Looking back at his senior year in high school, it was a time filled with test papers, rankings and anxiety. As a father, I see it in my eyes and feel pain in my heart. I watched his tired back in the middle of the night countless times, watching him collapse because of an unsolvable problem, but I didn't know what to say to share his burden. I couldn't take the exam for him, nor could I bear the pain of growing up for him. So, I picked up the pen. I wanted to create a world where he—and all kids like him—could escape the suffocating exam room for a while. I wanted to write about a young man who did not fall after a collapse, but was caught by a sea. I want to tell him: life is not only about the college entrance examination, but also about the sound of tides, desert islands, starry sky, and that cat that only rubs against you on a snowy night. "The Sound of the Tide Washes away the Sorrow of Youth" is a belated hug written by me as a father to my son. I hope every child who feels suffocated under pressure can find an outlet to breathe here.