"A fascinating novel, similar to Arthur Golden's Memoirs of a Geisha . . . A revisionist portrait of a beautiful and strong-willed woman" ( Houston Chronicle ).A San Francisco Chronicle Best Book of the YearFrom Anchee Min, a master of the historical novel, Empress Orchid sweeps readers into the heart of the Forbidden City to tell the fascinating story ...

'Empress Orchid is strong on both sexual chicanery and violent conspiracy ... fascinating' GUARDIAN'An engrossing story ... enhanced by Min's imaginative power ... Like all good novelists, she implies as much as she says, and her characterisation is subtle and worldly-wise' GLASGOW HERALD_________________________It is the 19th century, and China is in chaos. One woman will rise from ...

The National bestselling author's historical novel "creates a fanciful yet believable world for the Nobel laureate Pearl Buck" ( San Francisco Chronicle ).It is the end of the nineteenth century and China is riding on the crest of great change, but for nine-year-old Willow, the only child of a destitute family in the small southern town of Chin-kiang, nothing ever seems to change. Until the day she meets Pearl, the eldest ...

From the author of the international bestseller Empress Orchid comes the stirring, erotically charged story of the woman known as 'the white-boned demon' - the ambitious wife of Chairman Mao whose actions led to the death of millions in the Cultural Revolution. From the young, unwanted daughter of a concubine, defiant in her refusal to have her feet bound, to the wayward, beautiful actress on the stages of Shanghai, to the ruthless, charismatic partner of the great revolutionary leader, Ma...

From the national bestselling author of Red Azalea: "Extraordinary . . . Min lets [Madame Mao] be seen as never before. Bottom line: riveting" ( People).In a sweeping, erotically charged story, Anchee Min creates a finely nuanced portrait of one of the most fascinating, and vilified, women of the twentieth century.Madame Mao is almost universally known as the "white-boned demon"—ambitious, vindictive, and cruel—whose bid to succeed her hus...

Two girls come of age during the horrors of China's Cultural Revolution in this novel by the national bestselling author of Empress Orchid.The young and beautiful Wild Ginger is only in elementary school, but has already survived hell through her sheer iron will. Singled out by the Red Guards for her "foreign-colored eyes," she has seen her deceased father branded a traitor and her mother commit suicide under the oppressive weight of persecution. But the y...

A revelatory and disturbing portrait of China, this is Anchee Min’s celebrated memoir of growing up in the last years of Mao’s China. As a child, Min was asked to publicly humiliate a teacher; at seventeen, she was sent to work at a labor collective. Forbidden to speak, dress, read, write, or love as she pleased, she found a lifeline in a secret love affair with another woman. Miraculously selected for the film version of one of Madame Mao’s political operas, Min’s life changed overnight. ...

"Admirers of Empress Orchid will be interested in this sequel. Others may find the introduction to relatively modern Chinese history a revelation" ( Rocky Mountain News).During the tumultuous end of the nineteenth century in China, the only constant was the power wielded by one person: the resilient, ever-resourceful Tzu Hsi, Lady Yehonala—or Empress Orchid—as readers came to know her in Anchee Min's critically acclaimed novel covering the first p...

This novel, described by the San Francisco Chronicle Book Review as "nothing short of miraculous," is the story of Zebra Wong, a Chinese girl whose pragmatic mind conflicts with her passionate heart; Lion Head, her classmate, whose penchant for romantic intrigue belies his political ambitions, and Katherine, the seductive American with the red lipstick and the wild laugh who teaches them English and other foreign concepts: individualism, sensuality, the Beatles. In Katheri...

The acclaimed memoir from the bestselling author of Empress Orchid**'**Historically remarkable ... intensely moving' SUNDAY TIMES'The book sings. It is a small masterpiece' VOGUEBorn into a devoutly Maoist family in 1950s Shanghai and forced to work on a communal farm from the age of seventeen, Anchee Min found herself in an alienating and hostile political climate, where her only friendshi...

In the small southern town of Chin-kiang, two young girls from verydifferent worlds collide and become inseparable companions. Willow ishardened by poverty and fearful for her future; Pearl is the daughter ofa Christian missionary who desperately wishes she was Chinese too.Neither could have foreseen the transformation of the little Americangirl embarrassed by her blonde hair into the Nobel Prize-winning writerand one of China's modern heroines, Pe...

'Vivid and entertaining ... this is history as it plays upon the emotions. Empires crumble, hearts are broken' THE TIMESFrom the bestselling author of Red Azalea comes the much-anticipated sequel to Empress OrchidAt the end of the nineteenth century China is rocked by foreign attacks and local rebellions. The only constant is the power wielded by one woman, Tzu Hsi, also known as Empress Orchid, who must face the ...