A thrilling new novel from #1 New York Times bestselling author
Lisa See explores the lives of a Chinese mother and her daughter who has
been adopted by an American couple.
Li-yan and her family align their lives around the seasons and the
farming of tea. There is ritual and routine, and it has been ever thus
for generations. Then one day a jeep appears at the village gate--the
first automobile any of them have seen--and a stranger arrives.
In this remote Yunnan village, the stranger finds the rare tea he has
been seeking and a reticent Akha people. In her biggest seller, Snow
Flower and the Secret Fan, See introduced the Yao people to her
readers. Here she shares the customs of another Chinese ethnic minority,
the Akha, whose world will soon change*.* Li-yan, one of the few
educated girls on her mountain, translates for the stranger and is among
the first to reject the rules that have shaped her existence. When she
has a baby outside of wedlock, rather than stand by tradition, she wraps
her daughter in a blanket, with a tea cake hidden in her swaddling, and
abandons her in the nearest city.
After mother and daughter have gone their separate ways, Li-yan slowly
emerges from the security and insularity of her village to encounter
modern life while Haley grows up a privileged and well-loved California
girl. Despite Haley's happy home life, she wonders about her origins;
and Li-yan longs for her lost daughter. They both search for and find
answers in the tea that has shaped their family's destiny for
generations.
A powerful story about a family, separated by circumstances, culture,
and distance, Tea Girl of Hummingbird Lane paints an unforgettable
portrait of a little known region and its people and celebrates the bond
that connects mothers and daughters.
