What is the narrator point of view in the book, Forbidden City: A Novel?

Nearly all of the novel is narrated in the first-person, past tense by Mei. The prologue and final chapter (Chapter 30) are narrated in the present tense by Mei. This point of view creates an intimacy between the reader and Mei as a narrator, thus making the story vivid. Since the novel is historical fiction, the first-person narration enhances the effect of the genre; it provides the reader with an idea of what the historical experience of Chairman Mao's rule might have felt like for people living through it.