This is a brilliant book on Chinese immigrants to the US, revolving around the stories 4 mothers and their 4 daughters. It talks why they left their motherland, sometimes to seek a better life for mother and daughter, and sometimes because they had no choice. It was really well-written, and the way it was written seems like it is for an American audience at the time it was published, to make the stories more accessible, and more relatable to the Chinese around them.

I also learnt a lot about the Chinese mother’s intuition, which I had experienced my fair share of.

I particularly enjoyed the story of the Fourth wife, who was forced into her second marriage due to shame. It was also pretty nerve-wrecking to know how the polyamory worked: not because of lust, but because of wealth and posterity.

Great read, highly recommend.

This is a beautifully written novel that describes the lives of four Chinese mothers, who left China for America, and their Chinese-American daughters. All the characters are well developed and the personalities of each one come through very strongly. The stories of the mothers' lives in China are sensitively and delicately combined with the perceptions of the daughters, making the novel eloquently poignant tale. The author captures the complexities of the relationships between the mothers and daughters extremely well. It was fascinating to read about the history of the Chinese mothers', and how their experiences affected their relationships with her American-born daughters, who couldn't really begin to understand what their mothers went through before leaving China for a better life.

Although it is a captivating and enticing novel, at times it is often easy to become confused about what mother goes with which daughter. A small gripe about an otherwise superb novel. Five stars!