Andrew Zhang was interviewed for BookCast by Fairfax County Public Library Director Sam Clay. BookCast is sponsored by Virginia Commerce Bank through the Fairfax Library Foundation.

• Zhang is the author of the novel, Memories of an Eastern Sky, which he wrote while a member of a library-sponsored writing group at the Kingstowne Library.



• Born during the Cultural Revolution, Andrew Zhang worked as a freelance writer with articles published in several major Chinese newspapers prior to coming to the U.S. in 1996. His career in the U.S. focused on technical writing and software engineering before he began writing Memories of an Eastern Sky in 2005.



• The book is Zhang's first novel. Semi-autographical, the novel was originally written to explain his family's background to his daughter, Elise.



• The main character in the novel is born into a loving family in the freezing, lawless, and foreboding part of Communist China. He quickly learns of the crushing power the government wields. His father is suspected of being counterrevolutionary, and the family makes the courageous decision not to succumb to the nefarious will of the ten-year Cultural Revolution that will eventually claim over thirty million innocent lives.



• In a recent article, Zhang encouraged writers by saying: "When you have a story to tell, you should free yourself from anything that prevents you from writing. Don't worry about your busy schedule - sometimes I only write down two or three words on a piece of paper with my story idea."



• About Andy Zhang