The Girl Who Played Go by Shan Sa (Book Analysis)

This practical and insightful reading guide offers a complete summary and analysis of The Girl Who Played Go by Shan Sa. It provides a thorough exploration of the novel’s plot, characters and main themes, including love, honor and war. The clear and concise style makes for easy understanding, providing the perfect opportunity to improve your literary knowledge in no time.

This clear and detailed 44-page reading guide is structured as follows:

• Biography of Shan Sa
• Presentation of The Girl Who Played Go
• Summary of The Girl Who Played Go
• Character study
  • Song of the Night, the go player
  • The Japanese soldier
• Analysis of The Girl Who Played Go
  • A coming-of-age novel
  • Love as a game
  • War as a game

About The Girl Who Played Go

The Girl Who Played Go tells the story of a young Chinese girl and a Japanese soldier who are brought together in spite of their differences by a game of go. However, the odds are stacked against them: their countries are bitter enemies and are currently embroiled in a bloody war, which means that the young couple’s blossoming relationship is doomed from the start.

The Girl Who Played Go was a major critical and commercial success: it has won a number of literary awards, including France’s Prix Goncourt des Lycéens, and has been translated into over 30 languages.

About Shan Sa

Shan Sa was born in China in 1972 and first achieved recognition as a writer at the age of just 12, when she won first prize in the Chinese national poetry contest for children. She left the country in 1990 in the wake of the Tiananmen Square protests and moved to France, where she studied philosophy and went on to write a number of novels, including The Girl Who Played Go, The Four Lives of the Willow and Empress.