Primeiros Críticos

In 1935 China, the ghost of a young woman named Leiyin watches her own funeral from above, wondering why she is being denied entry to the afterlife. Beside her are her three souls—stern and scholarly yang; impulsive, romantic yin; and wise, shining hun—who will guide her toward understanding. She must, they tell her, make amends . . . Her souls travel back through the years with her, behind the magnificent gates of the Song family estate. Outside, China is fractured by civil war and social change. However, none of the upheaval has touched Leiyin, a spoiled and idealistic teenager. When Leiyin meets the captivating left-wing poet Hanchin, she defies her father and learns a harsh truth: she is powerless to dictate her fate. Her punishment for disobedience leads to exile from her family, an unwanted marriage, a lover’s betrayal—and, ultimately, her death. Now a ghost, Leiyin must make amends, but when her seven-year-old daughter—the sole mourner at Leiyin’s funeral—is put in danger, Leiyin is forced to make a heart-wrenching choice. Richly infused with the rituals, sights, and sounds of early 20th-century China, Janie Chang’s engaging narrative of a woman’s quest to realize her destiny is a one-of-a-kind debut novel: moving, insightful, and wholly original.