Olivia Yee's life is one lived between two cultures. On the
surface, she is a successfully self-employed American photographer;
but deep within she has to contend with a cacophony of whispering
Chinese ghosts. For this she blames her half-sister Kwan, a
babbling 17 year old with a direct line to the spirit world, who
arrived from China when Olivia was five. For 30 years Olivia
resents and resists the disruption Kwan's superstitions bring to
her practical life. But when she and her husband decide to get
divorced, a trip to China is forced upon Olivia and she is finally
compelled to confront her own past - and what went before that. Amy
Tan's consummate skill weaves the material and the magical into a
rich and intricate novel, beautifully pointing up the
contradictions of Chinese American family life. (Kirkus UK)
Olivia Lee is only five years old when Kwan, her older sister from China, comes to live with the family and turns her life upside down, bombarding her day and night with ghostly stories of strange ancestors from the world of Yin. Olivia just wants to lead a normal American life.
For the next thirty years, Olivia endures visits from Kwan and her ghosts, who appear in the living world to offer advice on everything from restaurants to Olivia's failed marriage. But just when she cannot bear it any more, the revelations of a tragic family secret finally open her mind to the startling truths hidden in Kwan's unorthodox vision of the world.
"Resist the temptation to feast on this latest offering from Amy Tan in one voracious sitting – instead, savour it, slow time. Tan's writing rolls along effortlessly, like the best-told folklore – it's simply mesmerising."
ELLE
"Tan's women sparkle and sing off the page. I longed for even more of Kwan – a gorgeously feisty portrait of a Chinese-American housewife, chattering as loudly about the mole on her husband's testicles as the price of pickle-turnips. Kwan is a breathtaking creation."
JULIE MYERSON, 'Independent on Sunday'
"The sheer buoyancy of Amy Tan's writing, the gutsy humour and the sheer verve of the narrative as it bounces along, from modern San Francisco to nineteenth-century China, is entrancing."
IAIN FINLAYSON, 'Financial Times'
"A wonderful story, told with wit, humour and enormous intelligence. Literary prizes and critical acclaim should be heaped on Amy Tan's head."
MARIE CLAIRE
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