Daughters of the Sun and Moon
A Novel
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4.4 • 259 Ratings
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- $14.99
Publisher Description
An instant New York Times bestseller!
From beloved bestselling author Lisa See, the story of three Chinese women whose unexpected friendship helps them survive and, despite the odds, thrive, in the turmoil of post–Civil War Los Angeles.
In 1870, three Chinese women arrive in the small, dusty, and violent pueblo of Los Angeles. Dove, the bound-footed daughter of an imperial scholar, is entrancing and innocent. These characteristics should bring her great rewards, beginning with her arranged marriage to a much older merchant. Petal, the big-footed daughter of peasants, has grown up hungry and with dirt between her toes. In a moment of desperation, Petal’s father sells her to buy money for rice seed, and she is loaded onto a ship to the Gold Mountain—America—where she is once again sold. Moon is married to a doctor of traditional Chinese medicine. She is educated, speaks fluent English, and has been endowed with a face of great beauty, yet her failed footbinding as a child has left her with a limp that lessens her value in the eyes of many.
Each woman has her own desires. Dove wants to love and be loved, Petal desires freedom, and Moon seeks justice. Together they face a larger society that wishes them not one ounce of good will. Anti-Chinese sentiment is strong in Los Angeles, and this eventually leads to the Night of Horrors during which all three women are challenged in ways they could not have imagined. Brought together by hardship and heartbreak, they must use their bravery, endurance, and ability to “eat bitterness” to discover their voices, find freedom, and connect through solace and friendship. Together they are daughters of the sun and moon.
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.
