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What readers say ...           
Eberlein is on the level of standouts like Li Yiyun and Guo Xiaolu. Her writing is clear and poetic, and focuses usually on strong female characters .... Her message is clear: the Cultural Revolution was so damaging that even years later it continued to touch people’s lives no matter how much they thought it was behind them.

—  Susan Blumberg-Kason
Our favorite stories as a class are "Second Encounters,"  "Men Don't Apologize" and "Watch the Thrill." For us, "Watch the Thrill" is a classic of world literature, true of many times and places, even now.

—  A college teacher,  Midwest
“Apologies Forthcoming” was the book I got to take on my most recent trip. I had to write and thank you for the book! It was very moving and powerful. I am still trying to figure out how you pack so much life into such short snippets. There were phrases you included which completely captured an emotion, a person’s character or a moment of decision in just a few words. It reminded me of ink brush paintings I have seen in which a few brush strokes amazingly conjure a full portrait of that which they portray. But I don’t really have to analyze how you do it—just experience it. So on that front, I can only say I now feel as if I grew up and grew old with some of the people in the book—they will live on in my memory for years because what they experienced ran deep in my mind. The human dynamics they faced—love, loyalty, pain, betrayal, moments of beauty—were intensely familiar both from my own life and others whom I care about. Some of the particular situations they faced were wrenching and taught me a lot about what it was like to live through recent epochs in China. I appreciate that glimpse into a world I do not know well. In short, it was a compelling and highly memorable book. Thank you for writing it. Please let me know if you create any other books!

—  M.  Miller, Washington DC

I am having a great time working with Apologies Forthcoming. ... Every time I re-read it, I enjoy it more; I feel that I have still just scratched the surface.

—  An English teacher, Massachusetts

I chose to read your book slowly.  I am moved to tears.  Your characters are real, passionate, sensitive and beautiful in their life struggles and ability to love, each other, their country and the natural world that surrounds them.  Thank you for this experience.  Apologies Forthcoming is poetic and masterful. 

Sincerely and with appreciation,

— Carol A. Hansen,  Montana
It's inescapably true that once you start reading this story collection you cannot put it down until you're finished. Then you'll probably want to pick it up and start reading it again! Wonderfully human, unsentimental stories of a fascinating culture, time, and place; stories startling and vivid, yet understated; with precise description of life in evocative and realistic settings, and narratives sustained by a subtle tension that builds and relents, builds and relents, like waves gathering momentum for a rocky shore. I truly expect big things from Xujun Eberlein.

— A. Ray Norsworthy, Idaho

I took my daughter to her horseback riding lesson just now - sat in a grassy, sunny field and read "Snow Line."  The love story,  unobtained, with a hint of fable, and that powerful setting just took me completely away from the day's worries.  I'm also wild about a culture that honors its poets.

Gorgeous stuff, Xujun. Thank you!

— Terry DeHart, California
This work is delicately written, and heartbreakingly beautiful.

— Sue Miller, Connecticut
Phew. I have goosbumps - and it isn't a draught.   I am still overwhelmed by your story. You took me so emphatically into a society exquisetely arranged, and civilised; now just about to burst out of this critical point and give birth to something new. "Lets play blocks/ You and me/Use these odds and ends/Form an entirely new continent/We will smile/Then push them down. "

I know how difficult it is to translate a differnt perceptual framework into English without losing the flavour of what you want to say - you do so beautifully, and with authority. there are so many beautiful passages, i don't know where to start. the poems are so seamlessly part of the story - they come alive in a way they never would have alone.

— Binyavanga Wainaina,  Kenya/New York

I am charmed by Apologies Forthcoming but haven't been able to put my finger on precisely why. Xujun Eberlein writes with quiet intimacy. The stories are like listening to a really interesting person at a social gathering... someone uninhibited, unafraid to admit earthy things to a stranger.

— James P. Thompson,  Connecticut
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Author Bio
Xujun Eberlein grew up in Chongqing, China, and moved to the United States in the summer of 1988. After receiving a Ph.D. from MIT in the spring of 1995, and winning an award for her dissertation, she joined a small but ambitious high tech company. On Thanksgiving 2003, she gave up tech for writing. She has since won a bunch of literary awards. Her stories and personal essays have been published in the United States, Canada, England, Kenya, and Hong Kong, in magazines such as AGNI, Walrus, PRISM International, StoryQuarterly, Stand and Kwani. Her debut story collection Apologies Forthcoming won the 2007 Tartt Fiction Award and was published in June 2008.  She is the recipient of a 2008 artist fellowship in fiction/creative nonfiction from the Massachusetts Cultural Council.