The Lisa See Primer

Lily is haunted by memories–of who she once was, and of a person, long gone, who defined her existence. She has nothing but time now, as she recounts the tale of Snow Flower, and asks the gods for forgiveness. Snow Flower and the Secret Fan is a brilliantly realistic journey back to an era of Chinese history that is as deeply moving as it is sorrowful.

Young Peony is the cloistered daughter of a wealthy family. Though raised to be obedient, Peony has dreams of her own but is betrothed to a suitor she has never met. So begins Peony’s unforgettable journey of love and destiny, desire and sorrow–as Lisa See’s haunting new novel, based on actual historical events, takes readers back to seventeenth-century China, after the Manchus seize power and the Ming dynasty is crushed.

It’s 1938 in San Francisco, and three young women from very different backgrounds meet by chance at the exclusive and glamorous Forbidden City nightclub. The girls become fast friends, relying on one another through unexpected challenges and shifting fortunes. But after the Japanese attack Pearl Harbor, paranoia and suspicion threaten to destroy their lives, and a shocking act of betrayal changes everything.

In 1937, Shanghai, two sisters are having the time of their lives . . . until the day their father tells them that he has gambled away their wealth and he must sell the girls as wives to suitors who have traveled from California to find Chinese brides. As Japanese bombs fall on their beloved city, Pearl and May set out on the journey of a lifetime, one that will take them through the Chinese countryside and across the Pacific to the shores of America.

Returning to the story of the two sisters Shanghai Girls, Dreams of Joy follows the strong-willed nineteen-year-old daughter, Joy. She runs away to Shanghai in early 1957 to find her birth father—the artist Z.G. Li, with whom both May and Pearl were once in love. Dazzled by him, and blinded by idealism and defiance, Joy throws herself into the New Society of Red China, heedless of the dangers in the Communist regime. From the crowded city to remote villages, Pearl confronts old demons and almost insurmountable challenges as she follows Joy, hoping for reconciliation.

In the first book in Lisa See’s trilogy, The Red Princess Mysteries, a U.S. ambassador’s son and a Red Prince, a scion of China’s political elite, are found dead. In Beijing, David teams up with the unorthodox police detective Liu Hulan. In an investigation that brings them to every corner of China and sparks an intense attraction between the two, David and Hulan discover a web linking human trafficking to the drug trade to governmental treachery.

In the next book in the series, while David Stark is asked to open a law office in Beijing, his lover, detective Liu Hulan, investigates the suspicious death of a friend’s daughter, who worked for a toy company about to be sold to David’s new client. Hulan goes undercover at the toy factory deep in the heart of China. Suddenly Hulan and David find themselves on opposing sides: One of them is trying to expose a company and unearth a killer, while the other is ethically bound to protect his client.

In the final book in the series, Liu Hulan’s latest case finds her trapped between her country’s distant past and her own recent history. The case starts at a rally for a controversial cult that ends suddenly in bloodshed, and leads to the apparent murder of an American archaeologist. Getting to the bottom of ever-spiraling events, Hulan unearths more scandals, confronts more murderers, and revives tragic memories that shake her tormented marriage to its core.