Lisa See is the New York Times bestselling author of Peony in Love, Snow Flower and the Secret Fan, Flower Net (an Edgar Award nominee), The Interior, and Dragon Bones, as well as the critically acclaimed memoir On Gold Mountain. The Organization of Chinese American Women named her the 2001 National Woman of the Year. She lives in Los Angeles.
“Lisa See has written her best book yet. Snow Flower and the Secret
Fan is achingly beautiful, a marvel of imagination of a real and
secret world that has only recently disappeared. It is a story so
mesmerizing the pages float away and the story remains clearly
before us from beginning to end.”—Amy Tan, author of The Joy Luck
Club and The Opposite of Fate: A Book of Musings
“I was mesmerized by this wondrous book–the story of a secret
civilization of women, who actually lived in China not long ago. .
. . Magical, haunting fiction. Beautiful.”—Maxine Hong Kingston,
author of The Fifth Book of Peace
“Only the best novelists can do what Lisa See has done, to bring to
life not only a character but an entire culture, and a sensibility
so strikingly different from our own. This is an engrossing and
completely convincing portrayal of a woman shaped by suffering
forced upon her from her earliest years, and of the friendship that
helps her to survive.”
–Arthur Golden, author of Memoirs of a Geisha
“[A] marvelous narrative . . . a timeless portrait of a
contentious, full-blooded female friendship.”—Entertainment Weekly
(Editor’s Choice)
“An achingly beautiful, understated and absorbing story of love
[that] evokes the work of Jane Austen.”—Cleveland Plain Dealer
“A triumph on every level, a beautiful, heartbreaking
story.”—Washington Post Book World
“Both heartbreaking and heartbreakingly lovely . . . immerses the
reader in an unimagined world . . . The characters and their
surroundings come vibrantly alive.”—Denver Post
See's engrossing novel set in remote 19th-century China details the deeply affecting story of lifelong, intimate friends (laotong, or "old sames") Lily and Snow Flower, their imprisonment by rigid codes of conduct for women and their betrayal by pride and love. While granting immediacy to Lily's voice, See (Flower Net) adroitly transmits historical background in graceful prose. Her in-depth research into women's ceremonies and duties in China's rural interior brings fascinating revelations about arranged marriages, women's inferior status in both their natal and married homes, and the Confucian proverbs and myriad superstitions that informed daily life. Beginning with a detailed and heartbreaking description of Lily and her sisters' foot binding ("Only through pain will you have beauty. Only through suffering will you have peace"), the story widens to a vivid portrait of family and village life. Most impressive is See's incorporation of nu shu, a secret written phonetic code among women-here between Lily and Snow Flower-that dates back 1,000 years in the southwestern Hunan province ("My writing is soaked with the tears of my heart,/ An invisible rebellion that no man can see"). As both a suspenseful and poignant story and an absorbing historical chronicle, this novel has bestseller potential and should become a reading group favorite as well. Agent, Sandra Dijkstra. Author tour. (July) Copyright 2005 Reed Business Information.
In 19th-century China, girls with bound feet were often paired in lifelong relationships and in one locale even devised their own language. See tells us the story of one pair who inscribed secret letters on fans and very nearly lost each other through a terrible misunderstanding. With a ten-city tour. Copyright 2005 Reed Business Information.
"Lisa See has written her best book yet. Snow Flower and the Secret
Fan is achingly beautiful, a marvel of imagination of a real and
secret world that has only recently disappeared. It is a story so
mesmerizing the pages float away and the story remains clearly
before us from beginning to end."-Amy Tan, author of The Joy
Luck Club and The Opposite of Fate: A Book of
Musings
"I was mesmerized by this wondrous book-the story of a secret
civilization of women, who actually lived in China not long ago. .
. . Magical, haunting fiction. Beautiful."-Maxine Hong Kingston,
author of The Fifth Book of Peace
"Only the best novelists can do what Lisa See has done, to bring to
life not only a character but an entire culture, and a sensibility
so strikingly different from our own. This is an engrossing and
completely convincing portrayal of a woman shaped by suffering
forced upon her from her earliest years, and of the friendship that
helps her to survive."
-Arthur Golden, author of Memoirs of a Geisha
"[A] marvelous narrative . . . a timeless portrait of a
contentious, full-blooded female friendship."-Entertainment
Weekly (Editor's Choice)
"An achingly beautiful, understated and absorbing story of love
[that] evokes the work of Jane Austen."-Cleveland Plain
Dealer
"A triumph on every level, a beautiful, heartbreaking
story."-Washington Post Book World
"Both heartbreaking and heartbreakingly lovely . . . immerses the
reader in an unimagined world . . . The characters and their
surroundings come vibrantly alive."-Denver Post
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