PREP BLOG (1)… Refining your holiday reading list, For An Epic Journey: Song by Michelee Jana Chan

Whilst we still don’t know exactly what Summer 2021 will look like, it’s never too soon to start refining your holiday reading list. With this in mind, we wanted to flag a brilliant Unbound release which would make perfect travel companions — even if it means being transported across the world from the comfort of your back garden.

For An Epic Journey:

Song follows one boy’s journey to find his fortune from the rice fields of China to the rainforest of Guiana. This beautifully written and evocative story spans nearly half a century and half the globe — and though it is set in another century, Song’s story of emigration and the quest for an opportunity to improve his life is timeless. Available in a hand luggage-friendly paperback from 18th March 2021.

A beautifully told tale with fascinating historical insight’ Vanity Fair

Song

Michelle Jana Chan

18th March 2021 | PB £9.99

‘Precise, heartfelt, breathtaking . . . Song will touch you with its remarkable odyssey and
make you believe in dreams again’ Elif Shafak

● A sweeping historical epic, following one boy’s journey to find his fortune from
the rice fields of China to the rainforest of Guiana; by award-winning journalist
and travel editor of Vanity Fair, Michelle Jana Chan.

● This beautifully written and evocative story spans nearly half a century and half
the globe, and though it is set in another century, Song’s story of emigration and
the quest for an opportunity to improve his life is timeless.

‘A wonderfully lush and atmospheric odyssey of survival against all odds’ Bernardine
Evaristo

Song is just a boy when he sets out from Lishui village in China. Brimming with courage
and ambition, he leaves behind his impoverished broken family hoping he’ll make his
fortune and return home. Chasing tales of sugarcane, rubber and gold, Song embarks upon
a perilous voyage across the oceans to the British colony of Guiana, but once there he
discovers riches are not so easy to come by and he is forced into labouring as an indentured
plantation worker.

This is only the beginning of Song’s remarkable life, but as he finds himself between places
and between peoples, and increasingly aware that the circumstances of birth carry more
weight than accomplishments or good deeds, Song fears he may live as an
outsider forever.

About the Author

Michelle Jana Chan is an award-winning journalist and travel editor of
Vanity Fair in the UK, where she presents the magazine’s digital Future
Series. Formerly, Michelle was a BBC TV presenter, a news producer at
CNN Internationaland a reporter at Newsweek. She was a Morehead-Cain
scholar at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.