Book description
Nineteen-year-old Joy Louie has run away from her home in 1950s America
to start a new life in China. Idealistic and unafraid, she believes that
Chairman Mao is on the side of the people, despite what her family keeps
telling her. How can she trust them, when she has just learned that her
parents have lied to her for her whole life, that her mother Pearl is
really her aunt and that her real father is a famous artist who has been
living in China all these years?
Joy arrives in Green Dragon Village, where families live in crowded,
windowless huts and eke out a meagre existence from the red soil. And
where a handsome young comrade catches her eye... Meanwhile, Pearl
returns to China to bring her daughter home - if she can. For Mao has
launched his Great Leap Forward, and each passing season brings ever
greater hardship to cities and rural communes alike. Joy must rely on
her skill as a painter and Pearl must use her contacts from her decadent
childhood in 1930s Shanghai to find a way to safety, and a chance of joy
for them both.
Haunting, passionate and heartbreakingly real, this is the unforgettable
new novel by the internationally acclaimed Lisa See. â  See paints
a vivid portrait of communist China. Her rich detail and astonishing
research of the time is breathtaking' Lisa See is the author of six
previous novels, including the critically acclaimed New York Times
bestsellers Shanghai Girls
, Peony in Love
and Snow Flower and the Secret Fan
, Flower Net
(which was nominated for an Edgar Award), The Interior
, and Dragon Bones
. She is also the author of the widely acclaimed memoir On Gold Mountain
. She lives in Los Angeles.
