Swirl’s friend from the re-education camps. Lady Dostoevsky is a prominent translator of Fyodor Dostoevsky’s literary works and she is sent to the re-education camps for her love of Western culture. There, during the famine, she saves Swirl’s life by stealing food from the camp directors and feeding it to her. Once they are released, Lady Dostoevsky’s plant and flower clinic, Notes from the Underground (a reference to Fyodor Dostoevsky’s novella Notes from the Underground), is the meeting place where Swirl reunites with Wen the Dreamer, her husband, who also was taken to re-education camps.
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Lady Dostoevsky Character Timeline in Do Not Say We Have Nothing
The timeline below shows where the character Lady Dostoevsky appears in Do Not Say We Have Nothing. The colored dots and icons indicate which themes are associated with that appearance.
Chapter 4
Swirl’s closest friend at the re-education camp is a translator known as Lady Dostoevsky . Well-known for her translations, Lady Dostoevsky wryly comments one night that she wonders “how...
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...the re-education camps. Swirl almost dies of hunger, only managing to stay alive thanks to Lady Dostoevsky stealing rations from the camp director. Only three of the seven people who originally shared...
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Chapter 5
...that he can find her in a safe location—a plant and flower clinic belonging to Lady Dostoevsky , who, after being released from the re-education camp, has been living in Gansu Province....
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Chapter 6
...to contact Wen, he should tell Wen to meet her at Notes from the Underground, Lady Dostoevsky ’s plant and flower clinic in Lanzhou City. Swirl and Big Mother Knife are about...
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Chapter 7
...found yet another chapter. In this way, he eventually arrived at Notes from the Underground, Lady Dostoevsky ’s plant and flower clinic.
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There, Lady Dostoevsky told Wen the Dreamer that Swirl and Big Mother Knife are waiting for him in...
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Coda
...as they go, Swirl and Wen tell Ai-ming the stories of their family: about Zhuli, Lady Dostoevsky , and Big Mother Knife. Ai-ming often cries, even when the story is not a...
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