The "wisest and most captivating novel" (Boston Globe) from the
author of the bestselling The Valley of Amazement and the new memoir
Where the Past Begins
Set in San Francisco and in a remote village of Southwestern China, Amy
Tan's The Hundred Secret Senses is a tale of American assumptions
shaken by Chinese ghosts and broadened with hope. In 1962, five-year-old
Olivia meets the half-sister she never knew existed, eighteen-year-old
Kwan from China, who sees ghosts with her "yin eyes." Decades later,
Olivia describes her complicated relationship with her sister and her
failing marriage, as Kwan reveals her story, sweeping the reader into
the splendor and violence of mid-nineteenth century China. With her
characteristic wisdom, grace, and humor, Tan conjures up a story of the
inheritance of love, its secrets and senses, its illusions and truths.