The Valley of Amazement Amy Tan

The Valley of Amazement  Amy Tan

Overview:

The New York Times bestselling author and international sensation returns with her long-awaited novel, a magnificent family saga of fate and identity that moves from the lavish parlors of Shanghai courtesans to the fog-shrouded mountains of a remote Chinese village

Moving between the dazzling world of courtesans in turn of the century Shanghai, a remote Chinese mountain village, and the rough-hewn streets of nineteenth-century San Francisco, Amy Tan's sweeping new novel maps the lives of three generations of women connected by blood and history-and the mystery of an evocative painting known as "The Valley of Amazement."

Violet is one of the most celebrated courtesans in Shanghai, a beautiful and intelligent woman who has honed her ability to become any man's fantasy since her start as a "Virgin Courtesan" at the age of twelve. Half-Chinese and half-American, she moves effortlessly between the East and the West. But her talents belie her private struggle to understand who she really is and her search for a home in the world. Abandoned by her mother, Lucia, and uncertain of her father's identity, Violet's quest to truly love and be loved will set her on a path fraught with danger and complexity-and the loss of her own daughter.

Lucia, a willful and wild American woman who was once herself the proprietress of Shanghai's most exclusive courtesan house, nurses her own secret wounds, which she first sustained when, as a teenager, she fell in love with a Chinese painter and followed him from San Francisco to Shanghai. Her search for penance and redemption will bring her to a startling reunion with Flora, Violet's daughter, and will shatter all that Violet believed she knew about her mother.

Spanning fifty years and two continents, The Valley of Amazement is a deeply moving narrative of family secrets, the legacy of trauma, and the profound connections between mothers and daughters, that returns readers to the compelling territory Amy Tan so expertly mapped in The Joy Luck Club. With her characteristic wisdom, grace, and humor, she conjures a story of the inheritance of love, its mysteries and senses, its illusions and truths.

“This utterly engrossing novel is highly recommended to all readers who appreciate an author’s ability to transport them to a new world they will not forget. As a plus, this reviewer sensed the harbinger of a sequel by the last page.” (Library Journal (starred review))

“Tan is a skilled storyteller. . . A satisfyingly complete, expertly paced yarn.” (Kirkus Reviews)

“Tan’s prodigious, sumptuously descriptive, historically grounded, sexually candid, and elaborately plotted novel counters violence, exploitation, betrayal, and tragic cultural divides with beauty, wit, and transcendent friendship between women.” (Booklist (starred review))

“The author of The Joy Luck Club and The Hundred Secret Senses can deliver a sweeping family saga like nobody else.” (Newsday (Fall Preview))

“It’s been a long eight years since Amy Tan’s last novel, but THE VALLEY OF AMAZEMENT proves that good things--breathtaking things--come to those who wait. [...] It’s wonderful to be back in Amy’s magical and amazing world.” (Lisa See, author of international bestsellers Snow Flower and the Secret Fan, Peony in Love, and Shanghai Girls)

“Amy Tan is one of our blackest-belted scriveners, and this is her masterwork.” (Mary Pearson, author of the New York Times bestsellers The Liars' Club, Cherry, and Lit)

Fans of Tan’s previous works (including The Joy Luck Club) will rejoice when they get their hands on this book. (Real Simple)

“Tan’s beautiful, seamless prose presents fans with a true sense of time and place, catching them up in the heartbreaking tragedy of the plot… Tan’s creativity is always a force, and in this epic tale her ability to captivate shines.” (Romantic Times)

“Tan is a gifted storyteller… This is one writer’s particular idiom and vision of the world - and within that she offers us a rich cast of characters who both repel and compel.” (Financial Times)

“Tan’s fans will appreciate the book’s multigenerational narrative and compelling look at a society in which men held the power but women gave each other strength.” (More magazine)

“Here are strong women struggling to survive all that life has thrown at them, created by a writer skilled at evoking the roil of emotions and made exploits they experience when they follow their hearts.” (New York Times Book Review)

“Fans will recognize signature Tan themes: mother-daughter relationships, clashes between cultures… threads of hmor and emotional insight make Violet’s struggle to survive, and ultimately forgive, a journey worth sharing.” (People)

“Tan still sweeps you up in the wildly changing fortunes of a whip-smart courtesan.” (Entertainment Weekly)

ENJOYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYY!

And Blessed Are The Ones Who Care For Their Fellow Men!