From Our Editors
An exalting, exultant novel about China and America, love and loyalty, invented identities and discovered selves, "The Hundred Secret Senses" tells the story of Olivia Laguni, who is half-Chinese, but typically American in her uneasiness with her patchwork family, especially her half-sister, Kwan, who can see the dead with her "yin eyes"
From the Publisher
The Hundred Secret Senses is an exultant novel
about China and America, love and loyalty, the identities we invent
and the true selves we discover along the way. Olivia Laguni is
half-Chinese, but typically American in her uneasiness with her
patchwork family. And no one in Olivia''s family is more
embarrassing to her than her half-sister, Kwan Li. For Kwan speaks
mangled English, is cheerfully deaf to Olivia''s sarcasm, and sees
the dead with her "yin eyes."
Even as Olivia details the particulars of her decades-long grudge
against her sister (who, among other things, is a source of
infuriatingly good advice), Kwan Li is telling her own story, one
that sweeps us into the splendor, squalor, and violence of Manchu
China. And out of the friction between her narrators, Amy Tan
creates a work that illuminates both the present and the past
sweetly, sadly, hilariously, with searing and vivid prose.
"Truly magical...unforgettable...this novel...shimmer[s] with
meaning."--San Diego Tribune
"The Hundred Secret Senses doesn''t simply return
to a world but burrows more deeply into it, following new trails to
fresh revelations."--Newsweek
From the Jacket
The Hundred Secret Senses is an exultant novel about China and
America, love and loyalty, the identities we invent and the true
selves we discover along the way. Olivia Laguni is half-Chinese,
but typically American in her uneasiness with her patchwork family.
And no one in Olivia''s family is more embarrassing to her than her
half-sister, Kwan Li. For Kwan speaks mangled English, is
cheerfully deaf to Olivia''s sarcasm, and sees the dead with her
"yin eyes."
Even as Olivia details the particulars of her decades-long grudge
against her sister (who, among other things, is a source of
infuriatingly good advice), Kwan Li is telling her own story, one
that sweeps us into the splendor, squalor, and violence of Manchu
China. And out of the friction between her narrators, Amy Tan
creates a work that illuminates both the present and the past
sweetly, sadly, hilariously, with searing and vivid prose.
"Truly magical...unforgettable...this novel...shimmer[s] with
meaning."--San Diego Tribune
"The Hundred Secret Senses doesn''t simply return to a world but
burrows more deeply into it, following new trails to fresh
revelations."--Newsweek
About the Author
Writer Amy Tan was born on February 19, 1952 in Oakland, California. She received a master's degree in linguistics from San Jose State University. She worked as a free lance business writer, but eventually turned to fiction. Her first book was The Joy Luck Club. Tan's titles have been translated into more than 20 languages.
Trade Paperback
368 Pages, 5.24 x 8.03 x 0.8 in
June 30, 1998
Knopf Doubleday Publishing Group
0375701524
9780375701528