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A daughter discovers the dramatic history that shaped her mothers secret life in an emotional and immersive novel by Zhang Ling, the bestselling author of A Single Swallow. There was rarely a time when Phoenix Yuan-Whyllers mother, Rain, didnt live with her. Even when Phoenix got married, Rain, who followed her from China to Toronto, came to share Phoenixs life. Now at the age of eighty-three, Rains unexpected death ushers in a heartrending separation. Struggling with the loss, Phoenix comes across her mothers suitcasea memory box Rain had brought from home. Inside, Phoenix finds two old photographs and a decorative bottle holding a crystallized powder. Her auntie Mei tells her these missing pieces of her mothers early life can only be explained when they meet, and so, clutching her mothers ashes, Phoenix boards a plane for China. What at first seems like a daughters quest to uncover a mothers secrets becomes a startling journey of self-discovery. Told across decades and continents, Zhang Lings exquisite novel is a tale of extraordinary courage and survival. It illuminates the resilience of humanity, the brutalities of life, the secrets we keep and those we share, and the driving forces it takes to survive.
A daughter discovers the dramatic history that shaped her mothers secret life in an emotional and immersive novel by Zhang Ling, the bestselling author of A Single Swallow.
There was rarely a time when Phoenix Yuan-Whyllers mother, Rain, didnt live with her. Even when Phoenix got married, Rain, who followed her from China to Toronto, came to share Phoenixs life. Now at the age of eighty-three, Rains unexpected death ushers in a heartrending separation.
Struggling with the loss, Phoenix comes across her mothers suitcasea memory box Rain had brought from home. Inside, Phoenix finds two old photographs and a decorative bottle holding a crystallized powder. Her auntie Mei tells her these missing pieces of her mothers early life can only be explained when they meet, and so, clutching her mothers ashes, Phoenix boards a plane for China. What at first seems like a daughters quest to uncover a mothers secrets becomes a startling journey of self-discovery.
Told across decades and continents, Zhang Lings exquisite novel is a tale of extraordinary courage and survival. It illuminates the resilience of humanity, the brutalities of life, the secrets we keep and those we share, and the driving forces it takes to survive.