Thank you Hachette Audio for the ALC and Algonquin Books, #partner, for the advanced copy of Their Divine Fires in exchange for my honest review.
Publisher: Algonquin Books / Hachette Audio
Published: May 7, 2024
Summary:
A family saga that begins at the dawn of the Chinese Revolution and spans 100 years to trace the intricate lives of four generations of Chinese and Chinese American women
In 1917, at the dawn of the Chinese Revolution, Yunhong grows up in the southern China countryside and falls in love with the son of a wealthy landlord—but on the night of her wedding, her brother destroys the marriage before it has lasted even a day. Yunhong’s daughter Yuexin will never know her father. She passes that sorrow on to her daughters Hongxing and Yonghong, who come of age in the years following Mao’s death, battling the push and pull of political forces as they forge their own paths. Each generation guards its secrets, leaving Emily, living in contemporary America, to piece together what actually happened between her mother and her sister, and to understand the weight of their shared history.
My thoughts:
This debut was right up my alley – an epic intergenerational family saga that covers four generations of Chinese women across 100 years — and it’s based on the author’s own family’s story – what’s not to love? While bringing attention to the struggles that women faced during throughout China’s history, it also shows the need for stories from our ancestors to be told.
This story completely captivated me from the beginning and I found myself drawn into the lives of the women we meet. I found the struggles they went through to be heartbreaking, yet the story has an overall inspiring tone to it. Not completely familiar with the political history of China, I appreciated how that was woven into the story. We see the family navigate their way through the changes over time for good or bad.
This is the type of book that I love because I become so engrossed in it. I actually wish it was longer because I wanted more…I wanted more with each character and I wanted a bit more of the history, though that’s not to say that I didn’t love it as it was. I definitely recommend picking this one up and for a debut, I’m quite impressed with the depth and beauty of the writing. This is an author I will for sure be keeping an eye out for.
Audio thoughts:
I alternated between the print and audio for this one and appreciated the skilled narration from Katharine Chin, especially when it came to the names and places in China.
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