Loving Sabotage

Set in the mid-1970s, Amelie Nothomb's Loving Sabotage is narrated by a 7-year-old girl stationed in Beijing (then Peking) during her father’s diplomatic assignment. When a new family arrives into the neighborhood, the book's political setting fades into the background and it becomes an intense and perceptive tale of childhood love and obsession. The book is presented as a work of fiction, but appears to be largely a memoir of Nothomb's own childhood experiences