Editorial Reviews
Joanna Chiu, author of China Unbound, winner of the Shaughnessy Cohen Prize for Political Writing:
“Nine Dash Line is a riveting page-turner, part thriller and nail-biting tale of survival as well as a deft exploration of U.S. and Chinese covert operations for dominance in the South China Sea. While the true historical events are re-imagined, they are rooted in Saso’s astute psychological studies of actual institutions and public figures. Saso’s background in international relations and security studies shines on the page. The result is a smart, engrossing and darkly entertaining novel for our times.”
Matt Cahill, author of The Society of Experience, and Radioland:
“Saso plunges the reader into a sun-bleached arena of international espionage, emotional ensnarement and the unnavigable trajectories of atonement. Disquieting in its meditations on fate, Nine Dash Line explores, in ways both grand and intimate, the perils of centering the mercurial needs of our homeland within our less anchored selves.”
Jan Wong, author of Red China Blues:
“…By turns lyrical and mystical, Nine Dash Line brings geopolitics to a human level through two protagonists in parallel hostile environments…”
Thomas Trofimuk, author of Waiting for Columbus and This is All a Lie:
“… a captivating page turner that is part geopolitical thriller, and part love story. Jess and Zi Shan are trapped on an atoll in the South China Sea, torn between two ideologies, and yearning for so much more than this omnipresent battle. There is a desolate longing throughout this novel that is embodied beautifully by its two main characters as they search for love, family, forgiveness, freedom, and understanding. Emily Saso is a hell of a fine storyteller and a writer to watch.”
Carrie Snyder, author of Girl Runner:
“Emily Saso’s Nine Dash Line is a fast-paced historical thriller deepened with flashes of beauty.”
Published reviews
The Miramichi Reader: “In Nine Dash Line, Emily Saso has written a truly original work of fiction, a rousing and disturbing novel inspired by history, richly imagined and stunningly executed.”
Pickle Me This: “By the end of the first chapter, I was absolutely hooked, riveted, Saso’s plotting and prose casting an incredible spell that held to the final page, resulting in such a strange and expansive novel, a story of geopolitics, about espionage, war, and ideology, and pain, and longing, and the necessity of living by one’s wits to survive impossible situations, about the impossible becoming possible, for better and for worse.”
Emily Saso: Writer 