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Dreams of Joy: A Novel
Unavailable
Dreams of Joy: A Novel
Unavailable
Dreams of Joy: A Novel
Audiobook15 hours

Dreams of Joy: A Novel

Written by Lisa See

Narrated by Janet Song

Rating: 4 out of 5 stars

4/5

()

Currently unavailable

Currently unavailable

About this audiobook

In her beloved New York Times bestsellers Snow Flower and the Secret Fan, Peony in Love, and, most recently, Shanghai Girls, Lisa See has brilliantly illuminated the potent bonds of mother love, romantic love, and love of country. Now, in her most powerful novel yet, she returns to these timeless themes, continuing the story of sisters Pearl and May from Shanghai Girls, and Pearl's strong-willed nineteen-year-old daughter, Joy.

Reeling from newly uncovered family secrets, and anger at her mother and aunt for keeping them from her, Joy 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.

Devastated by Joy's flight and terrified for her safety, Pearl is determined to save her daughter, no matter the personal cost. From the crowded city to remote villages, Pearl confronts old demons and almost insurmountable challenges as she follows Joy, hoping for reconciliation. Yet even as Joy's and Pearl's separate journeys converge, one of the most tragic episodes in China's history threatens their very lives.

Acclaimed for her richly drawn characters and vivid storytelling, Lisa See once again renders a family challenged by tragedy and time, yet ultimately united by the resilience of love.


From the Hardcover edition.
LanguageEnglish
Release dateMay 31, 2011
ISBN9780739359365
Unavailable
Dreams of Joy: A Novel
Author

Lisa See

Lisa See is the New York Times bestselling author of The Island of Sea Women, The Tea Girl of Hummingbird Lane, Snow Flower and the Secret Fan, Peony in Love, Shanghai Girls, China Dolls, and Dreams of Joy, which debuted at #1. She is also the author of On Gold Mountain, which tells the story of her Chinese American family’s settlement in Los Angeles. See was the recipient of the Golden Spike Award from the Chinese Historical Association of Southern California and the Historymaker’s Award from the Chinese American Museum. She was also named National Woman of the Year by the Organization of Chinese American Women.

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Reviews for Dreams of Joy

Rating: 4.111198618138801 out of 5 stars
4/5

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  • Rating: 3 out of 5 stars
    3/5
    This is a sequel to Shanghai Girls. The first half was awful, unlikeable characters, stilted writing, slow etc. The second half picked up the pace, the fact based stories of The Great Famine under Mao are horrifying, the tension increases and everybody smartens up. Worth reading, but should have been better written.
  • Rating: 5 out of 5 stars
    5/5
    I love Lisa See's writing. It's beautiful (sometimes terrifying) and well-researched. This book is especially good when read with it's prequel, Shanghai Girls. (I received a free ARC of this book from a Goodreads Giveaway)
  • Rating: 4 out of 5 stars
    4/5
    This is a Reading Good Books review.There's a strange story about how I got this book. I was browsing a message board for something and on the bottom right side of the page, there was something like, "Take this survey and get a free book!" I was skeptical but a free book is a free book so I took the survey. I was expecting the freebie to be an ebook or some random self-help or business book but I was surprised that they gave the respondent choices. More surprising were the titles of the books. I remember seeing The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo , that Lauren Conrad book, and one of those Chicken Soup for the Soul books. And then there's this one. I picked this one from the bunch, filled out the form, and totally forgot about it. I don't even remember how long it took from the time I took the survey until I got this book in the mail. My mom just placed it on my bed one afternoon; she's used to me getting free books in the mail anyway.I have to say, this is one of those "judge a book by its cover" choices. While I am familiar with Lisa See, I have not read any of her work. I've seen the movie version of Snow Flower and the Secret Fan though. I was drawn to the Chinese-style drawing on the cover and I was intrigued by the blurb at the back. I had no idea it was a sequel to another book so I went into this blindly, right where the first book, Shanghai Girls, left off.Joy is at a crossroads in her life. She's 19, in college in Chicago, living with her extended family in Los Angeles Chinatown. She just found out that the woman she called 'mom' was really her aunt, and 'auntie May' was her biological mother. The man she called 'dad' recently took his life while his invalid uncle lay dying. So full of idealism, she flees to China to find her biological father and fight for what she believes in. China in the 1950s was ruled by Mao Zedong and his "Great Leap Forward". Communism blinded everyone, made them think that doing silly things such as kill sparrows and melt their cookware to make machinery will make China "the best country in the world". Joy finds herself with her birth father, Z.G. Li shortly after arriving to the country, losing her identity in the process. Pearl Chin, the woman who raised her, followed Joy to China in hopes of finding her and bringing her back to the USA no matter the cost. Being raised in Los Angeles, Joy experiences culture shock which is quickly remedied by falling in love with a country boy. She follows her heart and finds herself disappointed that what she believed about China was far from the truth. Meanwhile, Pearl does some soul-searching of her own. In her path leading to Joy, she finds bits and pieces of her old life and ties off the many loose ends that she left when she and her family fled to the US. This is one of the most powerful books I've ever read. I was very impressed by the writing, how well-researched it is, and how sincere it felt. It was so compelling that twice I almost missed my stop at the train. I could not put it down. Along the lines of Haruki Murakami and Arthur Golden's Memoirs of a Geisha , Lisa See is very good at painting a picture so realistic yet magical at the same time. You can feel Pearl's pain and Joy's determination, I rooted for the both of them throughout the entire book. It evoked a rather strong reaction from me. I was outraged, sad, even shocked at some of the things that happened in the book. I felt sorry for Joy. But at the same time, I wanted to say "that's what you get for not listening to your mom". We all had that defiant and idealistic phase in our lives so in a way, I understood where she was coming from. I just did not agree on how far she took it. I wanted Pearl to succeed. Her love for Joy and for those around her was so strong that you can hold it in your hand. She loved everyone and she deserved all the love in the world. I preferred Pearl's parts in the book a bit more than Joy's though. Those had more compelling and likeable characters while Joy was surrounded by people who I wanted to go away.Also, it was a nice touch that a part of this book happened in Los Angeles Chinatown. One of the trains I take has a stop at LA Chinatown. During the time I was reading this, it made my day a bit brighter every time my train stops there. I don't see it as a "coming-of-age" novel exactly. Instead, it is a journey through life. Parallel journeys by Pearl and Joy, mother-daughter, through a country they both longed for. Rating: 4/5.Recommendation: A very good look into the Asian culture. Beautiful visuals and excellent writing transports the reader to old China.
  • Rating: 4 out of 5 stars
    4/5
    China's Great Leap Forward during the 1950s was not a period I was familiar with until getting a glimpse while reading this novel. I didn't realize it was a sequel to Shanghai Girls, but I found it didn't impact my enjoyment or understanding. Lisa See's Snow Flower and the Secret Fan is still my favorite of hers, however I loved that this novel was just as well researched and beautifully written. I especially enjoyed the photos and how they impacted her writing at the end of the book.
  • Rating: 5 out of 5 stars
    5/5
    rabck from spoiledrotten; second in the series and I liked this one better. Joy runs away after finding out her mother is really her aunt and her aunt is her mother & her biological father is in Red China, under Mao. Taking place in the last 50's, Joy finds her father in Shanghai. Her adoptive mother Pearl, chases after her into China, while leaving her biologicial mother back in LA to take care of the family back there. Joy and Z. G. go to the countryside, where Joy meets Tao, whom she eventually marries against her parent's wishes. Joy's life disintegrates as the commune declines into famine during The Great Leap forward initiative, and eventually Pearl and Z. G. receive a letter and photos "encoded" to pass censorship. Realizing how bad things are in Joy's village, Z. G. and Pearl are able to reach her and bring Tao, Joy and Joy's baby Sam back to Shanghai, where they plot their escape to Hong Kong, along with Dun, one of the old boarders in Pearl's Shanghai home.
  • Rating: 5 out of 5 stars
    5/5
    I knew when I finished Shanghai Girls that the story wasn't finished. I was thrilled to hear that Ms. See felt the same way. In Dreams of Joy we are continued in the story of Pearl, May and Joy. Really, this is Pearl and Joy's story. It's a story of love, mother love, family, self-acceptance, self-reliance and determination. I thought it was an excellent sequel to a book that I had cherished.
  • Rating: 4 out of 5 stars
    4/5
    Started off a little slow, but I was really invested in the second half of the book. This was really the first time I'd read any description of what life was like for Chinese citizens (either native or repatriated) during Mao's Great Leap Forward. I realized how much I really don't know about that period of history from a non-U.S. perspective, and the historical background was incredibly fascinating (sad, but fascinating). Lisa See clearly did a lot of research to write this book, and it paid off.
  • Rating: 4 out of 5 stars
    4/5
    This book picks up directly where its predecessor Shanghai Girls leaves off, with Joy departing for China and her mother Pearl following on her heels. As Joy struggles with her feelings about the family secrets she's recently unearthed and tries to reunite with her biological father, Pearl is desperately following the breadcrumb trail left in her daughter's wake while simultaneously coming to terms with the past she left behind in China.At first, I wasn't super thrilled with this book as it opened with narration by Joy, rather than by Pearl who narrated the entirety of Shanghai Girls. Joy's stubborn naivety in the face of all the evidence presented before her was grating. When she finally realizes her mistakes, I was able to feel more for her. The parts narrated by Pearl were exactly in line with the previous book. As with that title, See appears to have done a great deal of research and provides plenty of historical and cultural details within to couch this family drama. (A couple of small quibbles were when she has Pearl refer to some village children as "in their birthday suits" aka naked, a very American expression, and a couple of references to "Chinese New Year" while in China where I would presume most people are referring to it simply as "New Year" or "Lunar New Year" if any distinction is needed). There are some difficult scenes in this book, particularly as related to a difficult famine period. It is not for the faint of heart. However, there are also moments of happiness, more so than I think the previous book had. For that reason, I did like it a teensy bit more than Shanghai Girls. For the audio listener, Janet Wong was once again an excellent reader. Here it is even more obvious how the subtleties of her inflections, tones, etc. distinguish characters and help to tell the story.
  • Rating: 4 out of 5 stars
    4/5
    I LOVED the first book, Shanghai Girls. While this book was good, it definitely was not as good as Shanghai Girls. On the plus side, it did give a lot of interesting views of China during the Great Leap Forward. The characters were interesting and the relationships were so multi-faceted and well developed. However, there were just too many far fetched scenes especially at the end where people are saved a minute before something horrible would happen to them or too many far fetched coincidences. (Trying not to give away any of the plot so I'm not writing specifics) Overall it was a good book, but definitely not as great as Shanghai Girls.
  • Rating: 5 out of 5 stars
    5/5
    Another powerful novel about the Chinese and Chinese-American experience. This time the setting is mainly in China during the "Great Leap Forward," when Chairman Mao's edicts about farming and production caused millions of people to starve to death. The characters are familiar from Shanghai Girls
  • Rating: 5 out of 5 stars
    5/5
    I’ve been a fan of Lisa See’s ever since I read the non-fiction history of her family, “On Gold Mountain”, so the opportunity to get an advanced reader copy of ‘Dreams of Joy’ was exciting for me. The book did not disappoint. ‘Dreams of Joy’ is the sequel to ‘Shanghai Girls’, the story of Chinese sisters Pearl and May. They were ‘beautiful girls’, artist models who owned lovely clothes and partied in the fashionable places of Shanghai. But their father sold them into arranged marriages to Chinese men in America, bringing them to a very different way of life. ‘Dreams of Joy’ starts where ‘Shanghai Girls’ leaves off, in the 1950s. Pearl’s daughter, Joy, has found out that Pearl is not her birth mother; May is. An unrelated FBI investigation leads Joy’s father- not her biological parent, either- to commit suicide. In her anger, grief and confusion, she flees to Red China, having been seduced by the tales she’s heard in college of a classless society, equality, and Chinese building a country for the people. She also wants to find her biological father, Z.G., an artist. Pearl, horrified, pursues her. Red China at that time was not a good place to be unless you were one of the very top people, but at first Joy is enchanted. She finds her father with amazing ease, and he accepts that she is his daughter. He is leaving for a commune in the country, and so takes her along. Joy is enchanted by the Green Dragon Commune at first. She and her father are housed in an old villa rather than a hut. Everyone is well fed. Her father is teaching art to the peasants, bringing creative expression to the formerly downtrodden masses. She finds happiness in the physical labor she does in the fields and the camaraderie. And she meets a young man, Tao, who has some artistic talent but is the poorest of the poor. It’s not until after Joy and Tao are married- over the protests of both Z.G. and Pearl- that she realizes how horrible a spot she is in and her idealism caves in. The Great Leap Forward, and the devastating famine in causes, occur right then. Soon they are all starving to death, all flesh gone from their bones but swollen with edema, people dying by the millions. Something needs to be done, and daring plans are hatched by Joy, by Pearl, by Z.G. I found myself unable to put the book down, horrified by what might happen to these people who are all imperiled by both the famine and the government. The story is told in turns by Joy and by Pearl. This creates a good balance; the young girl pitching headlong into disaster vs the mature woman quietly working to solve things. Old China vs New China. This is a story of all types of love and of growth and survival, and the lengths that people will go to for these things. The book graphically describes the horrors wrought by nature and by humans. I recommend it highly.
  • Rating: 4 out of 5 stars
    4/5
    See's books are always really enjoyable, and this is no exception. If you've read 'Shanghai Girls', it's almost a requirement to read this. It's very different, being set in Maoist China instead of the US, but just as historically rich. See offers us a fair and critical view of this period of Chinese history, with an afterword somberly informing us that 45 million people died in the Great Leap Forward, at best estimate. It's also refreshing to read a novel that doesn't shy away from mentioning "feminine hygiene".
  • Rating: 5 out of 5 stars
    5/5
    Unforgettable account of the famine years during China's Great Leap Forward. The book's only flaw is that too often the characters are there to serve the book's background story, not the other way around. Not See's best book, but a worthwhile read. After I got passed the first 100 pages, I couldn't put it down.
  • Rating: 4 out of 5 stars
    4/5
    This is a story of the consequences of family secrets, youthful naivete, and idealism. When a number of horrible secrets come to light after Joy's father commits suicide, this young Chinese-American girl decides to pursue her lifelong dream. In haste, she runs away from home, purchases a ticket and returns to her parents ancestral homeland - Communist China. Joy hopes to devote herself to building the People's State and to reunite with her birth father.But Joy will soon learn that her dreams were founded on lies. In China she will experience many things that will change her life forever.
  • Rating: 3 out of 5 stars
    3/5
    Sequel to Shanghai Girls which I enjoyed much more. This one seemed to plod along.
  • Rating: 3 out of 5 stars
    3/5
    Continues the story of the Shanghi Girls, only thro the perspective of the daughter, Joy. Joy returns to China to find her father, during the time of China's Great Leap Forward. Lots of details about the life of peasants suffering and starvation at that time. Not a happy book to read,but I'm glad I did.
  • Rating: 5 out of 5 stars
    5/5
    I love all of Lisa See's novels. It's so easy to get sucked away into joy's life. I've never been to China, but her novels speak of the communist experience from a point of view that we rarely hear as Americans.
  • Rating: 3 out of 5 stars
    3/5
    Wasn't as good as the first book.
  • Rating: 4 out of 5 stars
    4/5
    The sequel to "Shanghai Girls" - I found this story more interesting as most of it takes place in China during the Great Leap Forward. Joy, the daughter from the first book, runs away to China to find her father. Her mother follows her and the book tells their story while in China. So sad at times but ultimately a story of love and family - some of the plot lines are a little forced but this can be forgiven as the overall arc of the story is well told.
  • Rating: 5 out of 5 stars
    5/5
    Lisa See is an amazing storyteller, with a great talent for including historical details into her novels. Dreams of Joy is the continuing story of May and Pearl, two sisters who escaped China for the U.S. after the Japanese invaded China... and the story of their daughter, Joy, who runs away from the U.S. back to China to discover her roots and who she really is... and to find her father. Heartbreaking at times, but filled with joy for sure.
  • Rating: 4 out of 5 stars
    4/5
    A friend gave me two of her novels about China's Great Leap Forward, which I took with me on my vacation. I have read a fair amount of fiction and memoir about China's revolutionary period, so I wasn't expecting to read anything remarkably new in Lisa See or Gail Tsukiyama's work, but both
    are established writers, so I anticipated that the plots and characters would be better developed than earlier work. Of the two, I really preferred Lisa See's novel, which offers her main character's firsthand account of the difficulties of the period of the Great Leap Forward, while also acknowledging the history that led up to that period. Perhaps one could argue that all of the characters in Tsukiyama's novel would likely have been sent out to the country in the following year to perform hard labor, but readers are left with the impression that everything is going to be all right, and there is no real foreshadowing of the famine that is going to take place in the following months. Her main characters all remain at some distance from the real suffering caused by Mao's policies with only a brief verbal report from the father who is in a labor camp. Will there be a bleaker sequel?
  • Rating: 5 out of 5 stars
    5/5
    Great sequel to Shanghai Girls. Overall I liked it just a tiny bit less, but still really enjoyed it.
  • Rating: 4 out of 5 stars
    4/5
    4.5 starsIt is the late 1950s and 19-year old Joy has run away from her mother and her aunt in California to communist China, specifically to Shanghai, to find her biological father. Her mother, Pearl, follows after her and hopes to bring her home again. Joy ends up in a rural village, a commune, which she initially likes (after getting used to some of the hardships), but it's only with famine that she realizes that this is not the ideal life that the Chinese officials have painted it to be. This one is told from alternating points of view of Joy and Pearl. I liked this better than the previous book, Shanghai Girls (focusing on Pearl and her sister May coming to the U.S. from China). It was really really good! I wanted to keep reading, and when I wasn't, I wanted to be reading it. It's certainly a topic I don't know about, and it was quite horrifying, some of that stuff done during the famine. See does provide a historical note at the end, as well as some info about her research and some discussion questions. This is probably my favourite book so far this year, and I'm sure it will make my favourites list for the year.
  • Rating: 5 out of 5 stars
    5/5
    Another powerful novel about the Chinese and Chinese-American experience. This time the setting is mainly in China during the "Great Leap Forward," when Chairman Mao's edicts about farming and production caused millions of people to starve to death. The characters are familiar from Shanghai Girls
  • Rating: 5 out of 5 stars
    5/5
    I couldn't put this down and enjoyed it much more than Shanghai Girls (and that was good, too!).
  • Rating: 3 out of 5 stars
    3/5
    Digital audiobook performed by Janet Song.This is the sequel to Shanghai Girls and any synopsis, no matter how brief, will include a spoiler for anyone who hasn’t read the first book. So, I’m going to dispense with that, other than to say that this book really focuses on China and the results of the cultural revolution.The novel gives the reader an horrific look at the Great Leap Forward and the devastating results of grandiose ideas imposed with little practical thought. The scenes of privation and starvation, of people willing to eat “anything” are disturbing and enlightening. I was already familiar with this episode in China’s recent history, but watching it unfold through these characters made is somehow “personal” and gave it much more impact. See also explores the meaning of love in this book: parent/child love, young love, love between friends, love of country. My main problem with the book was the central character: Joy. She was so immature and naïve, so stubborn in her refusal to listen to reason, so rash in her actions ... I just wanted to throttle her. On the other hand, Pearl really shines in this story. Talk about a strong heroine!Janet Song does a fine job narrating the audiobook. She has great pacing and a style of reading that really gives a sense of the culture. I’ve listened to other books set in China, narrated by Song, and she’s equally wonderful reading them all.
  • Rating: 5 out of 5 stars
    5/5
    Beginning where Shanghai Girls left off, this book follows Joy as she impulsively flees LA for Maoist China. Worried about her daughter’s safety, Pearl follows her, determined to save her from her impulsive decisions. This was a powerful and moving novel. It was fascinating to read about the cultural changes and affect the Chinese Revolution had on both peasants and the more wealthy and privileged individuals in China. I can’t wait to read more from this author!
  • Rating: 4 out of 5 stars
    4/5
    Dreams of Joy is a mother-daughter story, a story of idealism meeting reality, and the strength of familial bonds.Reeling from newly uncovered family secrets, and anger at her mother and aunt for keeping them from her, 19 year old Joy runs away to Shanghai in early 1957 to find her birth father—the artist Z.G. Li. 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 and the Great Leap Forward. Terrified for her daughter's safety, Pearl is determined to save her, no matter what the personal cost as one of the most tragic episodes in China’s history threatens their very lives. From the crowded city to remote villages, Pearl confronts old demons and almost insurmountable challenges as she follows Joy, hoping for reconciliation. Yet even as Joy’s and Pearl’s separate journeys converge, one of the most tragic episodes in China’s history threatens their very lives.I like Lisa See's books and this one did not disappoint. Yes, the ending wrapped up quickly and perhaps a bit too neatly, but she is well researched and appears to have a good understanding of family dynamics.
  • Rating: 5 out of 5 stars
    5/5
    Amazing book! Love it and I recommend it! It’s a profound story with many turning points, emotions, adventures and horror moments. I loved the main characters and their continuous fight for their own dreams. Here are some quotes I like and would love to share: “Everybody works so everybody eats.”“A hurried marriage is not a solid basis for a marriage. Suicide is not a solution to unhappiness.”“Just remember, a person is his – or her – history. If your history isn't good, then you won’t be good. A rebel as a five-year-old will be a rebel as young man and will die a rebel.”“The spear hits the bird that sticks his head out.”“As long as we have enthusiasm and determination, we can achieve anything!”“An inch of gold won’t buy an inch of time.”“Always show the greatest kindness to the ones you like the least. If you show kindness to your mother-in-law, who like all women has been bred to hate her daughter-in-law, then you will create an obligation she will never be able to repay.”“No matter what you’re feeling or how desperate you become, always take a moral position.”“Those who have little to lose don’t want to lose what little they have. ““…men are attracted to women who are crazy about them.”“…truth, forgiveness, and goodness are more important than revenge, condemnation, and cruelty.”“Give a low man one ounce of power and he’ll throw ten thousand pounds of bricks on your head.”“Nothing is more precious than when you might lose it.”
  • Rating: 5 out of 5 stars
    5/5
    I’ve been a fan of Lisa See’s ever since I read the non-fiction history of her family, “On Gold Mountain”, so the opportunity to get an advanced reader copy of ‘Dreams of Joy’ was exciting for me. The book did not disappoint. ‘Dreams of Joy’ is the sequel to ‘Shanghai Girls’, the story of Chinese sisters Pearl and May. They were ‘beautiful girls’, artist models who owned lovely clothes and partied in the fashionable places of Shanghai. But their father sold them into arranged marriages to Chinese men in America, bringing them to a very different way of life. ‘Dreams of Joy’ starts where ‘Shanghai Girls’ leaves off, in the 1950s. Pearl’s daughter, Joy, has found out that Pearl is not her birth mother; May is. An unrelated FBI investigation leads Joy’s father- not her biological parent, either- to commit suicide. In her anger, grief and confusion, she flees to Red China, having been seduced by the tales she’s heard in college of a classless society, equality, and Chinese building a country for the people. She also wants to find her biological father, Z.G., an artist. Pearl, horrified, pursues her. Red China at that time was not a good place to be unless you were one of the very top people, but at first Joy is enchanted. She finds her father with amazing ease, and he accepts that she is his daughter. He is leaving for a commune in the country, and so takes her along. Joy is enchanted by the Green Dragon Commune at first. She and her father are housed in an old villa rather than a hut. Everyone is well fed. Her father is teaching art to the peasants, bringing creative expression to the formerly downtrodden masses. She finds happiness in the physical labor she does in the fields and the camaraderie. And she meets a young man, Tao, who has some artistic talent but is the poorest of the poor. It’s not until after Joy and Tao are married- over the protests of both Z.G. and Pearl- that she realizes how horrible a spot she is in and her idealism caves in. The Great Leap Forward, and the devastating famine in causes, occur right then. Soon they are all starving to death, all flesh gone from their bones but swollen with edema, people dying by the millions. Something needs to be done, and daring plans are hatched by Joy, by Pearl, by Z.G. I found myself unable to put the book down, horrified by what might happen to these people who are all imperiled by both the famine and the government. The story is told in turns by Joy and by Pearl. This creates a good balance; the young girl pitching headlong into disaster vs the mature woman quietly working to solve things. Old China vs New China. This is a story of all types of love and of growth and survival, and the lengths that people will go to for these things. The book graphically describes the horrors wrought by nature and by humans. I recommend it highly.