Tong Ge | Best Selling Author | The House Filler (Audio)

The Kino Isaac Podcast

In this emotional episode, I sat down with Tong Ge, a celebrated author whose journey spans continents, languages, and cultures. Born and raised in China, Tong came to Canada in the late 1980s as an international student and earned her Master of Science degree from the University of Saskatchewan in 1992. Since 2012, Tong has been writing in both English and Chinese, using her own name and pen name to share her unique voice with the world. Her work has been featured in prominent publications such as PRISM International, Ricepaper, Canadian Stories, Polyglot Magazine, and Vineyard Poetry Quarterly, as well as Chinese-language magazines like 渥水 and 远方的诗. Tong’s remarkable talent has earned her four literary prizes and secured her as a finalist for four more. In this episode, we dive deep into her life story, creative process, her reflections on blending Eastern and Western perspectives, and the personal journey that inspired her debut novel, "The House Filler". Published in Canada in 2023, this acclaimed work is a 2023 Eyelands Book Awards finalist for historical fiction and memoir and the proud recipient of the 2024 Independent Press Award for New Fiction. About the The House Filler: A family saga set in China during the most tumultuous time of the twentieth century including the Japanese invasion, the civil war, and the Communist takeover. The House Filler is told through the experiences of Golden Phoenix, a woman who faces war, poverty, and political oppression as she fights for survival, freedom and happiness. After the untimely death of her husband, Golden Phoenix is determined to keep her family together. However, poverty forces her to make the heart-wrenching decision to give her teenage twins to the Red Army. During the upheaval of the Japanese invasion of her hometown, she is separated from her two young girls, and her remaining son leaves to fight with the Nationalist army. Golden Phoenix, along with her adopted son, remains to endure the horror and hardship of war. When the civil war ends with the Communists in power in 1949, one of her twins, who had joined the Communist Party, is wrongly accused of being a traitor and is sentenced to death. Golden Phoenix and her family must find a way to save her son’s life.