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    The Valley of Amazement
    The Valley of Amazement
    The Valley of Amazement
    Audiobook24 hours

    The Valley of Amazement

    Written by Amy Tan

    Narrated by Amy Tan, Nancy Wu and Joyce Bean

    4.5/5

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    About this audiobook

    New York Times bestselling author of The Joy Luck Club Amy Tan brings us her latest novel: a sweeping, evocative epic of two women’s intertwined fates and their search for identity—from the lavish parlors of Shanghai courtesans to the fog-shrouded mountains of a remote Chinese village

    Shanghai, 1912. Violet Minturn is the privileged daughter of the American madam of the city’s most exclusive courtesan house. But when the Ching dynasty is overturned, Violet is separated from her mother in a cruel act of chicanery and forced to become a “virgin courtesan.” Half-Chinese and half-American, Violet grapples with her place in the worlds of East and West—until she is able to merge her two halves, empowering her to become a shrewd courtesan who excels in the business of seduction and illusion, though she still struggles to understand who she is.

    Back in 1897 San Francisco, Violet’s mother, Lucia, chooses a disastrous course as a sixteen-year-old, when her infatuation with a Chinese painter compels her to leave her home for Shanghai. Shocked by her lover’s adherence to Chinese traditions, she is unable to change him, despite her unending American ingenuity.

    Fueled by betrayals, both women refuse to submit to fate and societal expectations, persisting in their quests to recover what was taken from them: respect; a secure future; and, most poignantly, love from their parents, lovers, and children. To reclaim their lives, they take separate journeys—to a backwater hamlet in China, the wealthy environs of the Hudson River Valley, and, ultimately, the unknown areas of their hearts, where they discover what remains after their many failings to love and be loved.

    Spanning more than forty years and two continents, The Valley of Amazement transports listeners from the collapse of China’s last imperial dynasty to the beginning of the Republic and recaptures the lost world of old Shanghai through the inner workings of courtesan houses and the lives of the foreigners living in the International Settlement, both erased by World War II. A deeply evocative narrative of the profound connections between mothers and daughters, imbued with Tan’s characteristic insight and humor, The Valley of Amazement conjures a story of inherited trauma, desire and deception, and the power and obstinacy of love.

    Editor's Note

    Classic Amy Tan…

    Memorable and touching, this novel is classic Amy Tan: Mother-daughter relationships, cross-cultural communication, and variations in perspective are all tackled in this multilayered tale of Shanghai courtesans.

    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherBrilliance Audio
    Release dateNov 5, 2013
    ISBN9781423322436
    Author

    Amy Tan

    Amy Tan is the author of The Joy Luck Club, The Kitchen God's Wife, The Hundred Secret Senses, The Bonesetter's Daughter, The Opposite of Fate: Memories of a Writing Life, Saving Fish from Drowning, and two children's books, The Moon Lady and The Chinese Siamese Cat, which was adapted into a PBS television series. Tan was also a coproducer and coscreenwriter of the film version of The Joy Luck Club. Her essays and stories have appeared in numerous magazines and anthologies, and her work has been translated into thirty-five languages. She lives with her husband in San Francisco and New York.

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    Reviews for The Valley of Amazement

    4.5/5

    100 ratings6 reviews

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    • 5/5
      It was so moving. It made me cry and think and feel
    • 5/5
      A wonderful story full of twist and turns. I laughed, I cried and I kept listening to the very end. A story about being a mom and loving our daughters.
    • 5/5
      I am a first generation half Cantonese and Caucasian mix. This book was relatable on so, so many levels.
    • 5/5
      What an incredible story. It was well worth listening to.
    • 3/5
      The story of three generations of women. It was very detailed and descriptive. I found it a bit long and harrowing. I liked it but didn't love it.
    • 5/5
      Love this book! I love this author and how she embraces mother and daughter relationships.