Master storyteller continues to delight

In Birth Throes, her latest novel, Zhang Ling tells of Chinese women and social transformation

Stories by Toronto-based author Zhang Ling, 58, know how to enter the readers' hearts and leave an impression that demands more pages to turn even when the book is finished.

Aftershock, a graphic tale of choices amid the massive Tangshan earthquake in northern China in 1976, so impressed director Feng Xiaogang that it was turned into a blockbuster in 2010.