I purchased this book for my own personal collection. I borrowed the audiobook from the library.
Publisher: Scribner / Simon & Schuster Audio
Published: March 21, 2017
Summary:
The thrilling new novel from number-one New York Times best-selling author Lisa See explores the lives of a Chinese mother and her daughter who has been abandoned and adopted by an American couple.
Li-yan and her family align their lives around the seasons and the farming of tea. There is ritual and routine, and it has been ever thus for generations. Then one day a jeep appears at the village gate – the first automobile any of them have seen – and a stranger arrives.
In this remote Yunnan village, the stranger finds the rare tea he has been seeking and a reticent Akha people. In her biggest seller, Snow Flower and the Secret Fan, See introduced the Yao people to her audience. Here she shares the customs of another Chinese ethnic minority, the Akha, whose world will soon change.
Li-yan, one of the few educated girls on her mountain, translates for the stranger and is among the first to reject the rules that have shaped her existence. When she has a baby outside of wedlock rather than stand by tradition, she wraps her daughter in a blanket, with a tea cake hidden in her swaddling, and abandons her in the nearest city.
After mother and daughter have gone their separate ways, Li-yan slowly emerges from the security and insularity of her village to encounter modern life while Haley grows up a privileged and well-loved California girl. Despite Haley’s happy home life, she wonders about her origins, and Li-yan longs for her lost daughter. They both search for and find answers in the tea that has shaped their family’s destiny for generations.
A powerful story about a family separated by circumstances, culture, and distance, The Tea Girl of Hummingbird Lane paints an unforgettable portrait of a little known region and its people and celebrates the bond that connects mothers and daughters.
My thoughts:
I have long been a fan of Lisa See’s books, ever since reading Snow Flower and the Secret Fan. I’ve read almost all her books and have had this one sitting on my shelf since it came out. I actually saw her on tour for this book and have been meaning to read it but as we all know, too many books and not enough time. Well, I’m so glad I finally got around to reading it because as I knew I would, I really enjoyed it!
I am a huge tea lover and so reading a book that is steeped in the history of tea was right up my alley. I loved learning all about it – the production of tea, the importance of it to the region and to the culture. As I have found with all of Lisa See’s books, they are so rich in cultural and historical detail and this one is no exception. I have definitely been left with a new-found appreciation for my morning cup of tea!
But this book isn’t just about tea. We learn about the Akha culture and their traditions, becoming immersed in a multigenerational saga. The Akha are superstitious people and some of their customs are quite shocking and extreme. Even their rural living conditions in modern times was a bit intense. And the “one-child policy” that was implemented from 1980-2015 is unsettling – how this was still in place not too long ago is unfathomable. But I appreciated the way that the author wove these threads into her story, showing how many families were left with no choice but to make difficult choices and give up their female children for adoption. I cannot even imagine this.
A beautiful, yet hard-hitting story that touches on mothers and daughters as well as a changing world, this is a book not to be missed!
Audio thoughts:
I alternated between the print and audio for this one, though I did most of it by audio. There was a full cast narration and I absolutely loved it!
