Publisher: Little, Brown and Company
Published: March 15, 2022
Source: Personal copy
Summary:
A “beautifully rendered” novel about war, migration, and the power of telling our stories, Peach Blossom Spring follows three generations of a Chinese family on their search for a place to call home (Georgia Hunter, New York Times bestselling author).
“Within every misfortune there is a blessing and within every blessing, the seeds of misfortune, and so it goes, until the end of time.”
It is 1938 in China and, as a young wife, Meilin’s future is bright. But with the Japanese army approaching, Meilin and her four year old son, Renshu, are forced to flee their home. Relying on little but their wits and a beautifully illustrated hand scroll, filled with ancient fables that offer solace and wisdom, they must travel through a ravaged country, seeking refuge.
Years later, Renshu has settled in America as Henry Dao. Though his daughter is desperate to understand her heritage, he refuses to talk about his childhood. How can he keep his family safe in this new land when the weight of his history threatens to drag them down? Yet how can Lily learn who she is if she can never know her family’s story?
Spanning continents and generations, Peach Blossom Spring is a bold and moving look at the history of modern China, told through the story of one family. It’s about the power of our past, the hope for a better future, and the haunting question: What would it mean to finally be home?
My thoughts:
This was one of my selections from the Book of the Month club last month and one of our @bookfriendsbookclub picks this one and I am so glad we selected it to read together and discuss. I am such a huge fan of multigenerational family sagas but never have I been more captivated and entranced that I have with this one – and to think it is a debut novel.
This book is steeped in history and yet is so incredibly readable. It follows three generations of one family through seventy years and I found myself completely engaged with every part of this book. There wasn’t one section that I felt dragged or that I was not interested in. It is both epic in scope of what it covers, and intimate in the way it is portrayed. I felt for this young mother who must make such incredibly difficult decisions, trying to provide for her son, and then watching her son make what he felt were the best decisions for him and then ultimately his family.
I loved the way the story was told through the three characters eyes – first Meilin, then introducing us to Renshu, and eventually adding on his daughter, Lily. It really allows us to be in their shoes as much as possible, and while this makes for some hard reading, especially in the beginning of the book when Meilin and Renshu are on the move, it makes it all the more authentic.
The writing in this story is such that you cannot help but be completely immersed and I found it hard to put down once I started it. It’s not a short book by any means and yet I read it in less than 48 hours…I just could not walk away from these characters. They had taken hold of my heart and I needed to be with them until I got to that last page. There is as much beauty within these pages as there is heartbreak. I was not familiar with all the history that this book covers and so I found myself googling quite a bit, but that is why I love reading historical fiction – I learn so much from these books. And I have to say, the writing here was such that it wasn’t so bogged down in detail that the story gets lost.
I absolutely loved this book and will be recommending it to everyone. And I will for sure be reading whatever it is that Melissa Fu writes next…oh what a talented author she is!
