Story Description:
Harper
Collins|October 21, 2013|Hardcover|ISBN: 978-1-44341-022-9
From the lavish
parlours of Shanghai courtesans to the fog-shrouded mountains of a remote
Chinese village – a sweeping, evocative epic of two women’s intertwined fates and
their search for identity.
Violet is one of
the most celebrated courtesans in Shanghai, a beautiful and intelligent woman
who has honed her ability to become any man’s fantasy since her start as a “Virgin
Courtesan” at the age of twelve.
Half-Chinese and half-American, she moves effortlessly between the east
and the west. But her talents belie her
private struggle to understand who she really is and her search for a home in
the world. Abandoned by her mother,
Lucia, and uncertain of her father’s identity, Violet’s quest to truly love and
be loved will set her on a path fraught with danger and complexity – and the
loss of her own daughter. Lucia, a
willful and wild American woman who was once herself the proprietress of
Shanghai’s most exclusive courtesan house, nurses her own secret wounds, which
she first sustained when, as a teenager, she fell in love with a Chinese
painter and followed him from San Francisco to Shanghai. Her search for penance and redemption will
bring her to a startling reunion with Flora, Violet’s daughter, and will undo
all that Violet believed she knew about her mother.
Spanning fifty
years and two continents, The Valley of
Amazement sweeps the reader along a deeply moving narrative of family
secrets, the legacies of traumas, and the profound connections between mothers
and daughters, returning readers to the compelling territory Tan so expertly
mapped in The Joy Luck Club. With her
characteristic wisdom, grace and humour, Tan conjures up a story of the
inheritance of love, its mysteries and senses, its illusions and truths.
Review:
The Valley of Amazement was truly an
amazing book! An epic tale of the most
magnificent proportions. Amy Tan has
written her best book yet. I couldn’t
put it down and at a hefty 589 pages I still read it in just over a day.
The book spanned
fifty years and two contintents – China and America. Two women, Violet and Lucia lost to each
other through no fault of their own once again meet and try to flesh out what
happened to them. This book made me
laugh, made me cry and left me feeling hugely satisfied. For as long as the book was, I still wanted
the story to continue on even further.
This is a book not to be missed and should be read by everyone. I will be keeping this as part of my
permanent collection.
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