Daughters of the Sun and Moon
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4.3 • 7 Ratings
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- $14.99
Publisher Description
America promised opportunity. What it gave them was a battle to survive.
From #1 New York Times bestselling author Lisa See comes a sweeping and unforgettable novel of friendship, resilience and courage inspired by the true history of Chinese women in nineteenth-century America.
In 1870, three women arrive in Los Angeles from China, each hoping for a better future.
Dove, the sheltered daughter of a scholar, expects security through an arranged marriage. Petal, born into poverty and sold by her family, dreams of freedom. Moon, intelligent and educated, longs for a life defined by her abilities rather than society's judgment.
Instead, they find themselves in a city shaped by violence, prejudice and growing anti-Chinese hatred.
As they struggle to build new lives, each woman must confront heartbreak, betrayal and impossible choices. Then, when racial tensions explode in a horrifying act of brutality that will change Los Angeles forever, their strength, endurance and friendship are tested beyond anything they could have imagined.
Bound together by hardship and hope, Dove, Petal and Moon must find the courage to claim their voices, fight for their futures and discover the extraordinary power of sisterhood in a world determined to silence them.
A powerful, richly researched historical novel about survival, belonging and the bonds that sustain us through the darkest times, from the beloved author of The Island of Sea Women, Lady Tan's Circle of Women and Tea Girl of Hummingbird Lane.
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
See's stirring novel (after Lady Tan's Circle of Women) interweaves the stories of three Chinese immigrants in 19th-century Los Angeles. In 1870, the small, dirty city is home to just 180 Chinese residents, including 30-odd women. That year, Dove's scholarly Cantonese father earns a large "bride price" by arranging her marriage to an elderly Los Angeles merchant who covets the status conferred by a young, beautiful wife. After Petal's starving peasant family sells her into servitude, she's forced to perform sex work at a brothel controlled by one of the city's Chinese tongs. By chance, Dove and Petal meet Moon, a happily married woman trying to get pregnant, and they bond over their mutual powerlessness. ("Not one of the thirty-four Chinese women in Los Angeles came here by choice," Moon observes dryly.) All three are endangered when white rioters loot the Chinese community and massacre nearly 20 men in October 1871. See builds a taut story from precise details, such as the fact that Petal will have to service an average of seven men a day, six days a week, to earn out her four-year contract. Without minimizing the period's racism and misogyny, See offers an inspiring vision of female resilience.
