This story is beautifully written and you will not want to put it down. A story of family, history, connection, reconnection, self discovery it is one that many will find they relate to and possibly inspire journeys of their own. An easy but important read, very enjoyable. Recommend you give it a try if you’re looking for fiction with a bit more bite, less fluff.

The Light of Eternal Spring was one of my favourite reads in 2023, and here is why.

There is something simply enchanting about magic realism that works perfectly well when authors are telling a story about family and generational trauma. This is not the first book I read that uses this genre or this technique, and despite the number of times I have read it, there is not a similar single story. The Light of Eternal Spring is short and full of magic, there is not a single page you can forget because the art of this book is in its details and it is the back-and-forth narrative that will make you experience every single feeling necessary to understand Amy, our main character, and her mom.

I am also a BIG fan of mother-daughter stories. I find it quasi soothing to read about them because sometimes, there are so many things left unsaid between moms and daughters and these stories just help bring them together.

Angel di Zhang did a splendid job with this book, this story, and her characters.

if the feelings and emotions that i experienced while reading this book were vintage clothes hung in a thrift store, i would scour every rack, searching for the perfect pieces to rekindle those same feelings and memories

"The Light of Eternal Spring" takes us on a journey from the busy streets of nyc to a small village called "eternal spring" in northeast China. We follow Aimee, a photographer who receives devastating news about her mother's death. Feeling responsible for her mother's broken heart (literally), she travels back to her roots to make amends. As Aimee reconnects with her family, the book also beautifully explores themes of mother/daughter and sisterhood, adding another layer of depth to this already captivating story."

This debut novel reads like a fever dream, a well-written tale of family, loss, longing, and connection where magical realism meets traditional Manchu storytelling. The blending of East and West and the struggle to balance two cultures and identities are something I know all too well. Additionally, this book offers a refreshing portrayal of North American Asian/Chinese literature, featuring non-Cantonese cultures and lesser-known areas. This book felt very personal to me on many dimensions, and no words can truly describe the feelings and emotions I felt.

Also, can we talk about how stunning the cover of the book is! The design resembles a film strip, with some of the letters partially blurred, as if captured by an unfocused camera.

Some quotes:

“But i was more interested in permanence, in words that could be written and photos that could be printed. I was interested in the immortality of art”

“But of course, my mother and i spoke the same language, and we still dind’t understand each other”

What a beautiful, poetic story. Commercial photographer in New York City, Amy (Wu Aimee) lives her life with her husband away from her family in China. When she receives a letter from her sister, she begins a journey through memories as she returns to her home village for the first time in ten years. It is a story about home, how you make one, how you can't quite return to a past one, about relationships, family, grief, and healing. The writing is beautiful, effortless, lyrical. I'll definitely reread it.

Easily my favourtie book of 2023. Thanks to Random House Canada and NetGalley for approving me for this literary magic realist novel.

The main character Aimee/Amy leaves her village of Eternal Spring in China to move to the place she’s always dreamed of living in, New York. While Aimee/Amy knows she has changed living in America, it takes her some time to realize that Eternal Spring was no longer the way she left it, that the place and the people have changed too. I think about how things and people can be different from how we imagine them to be, based on our last experience with them. And how things and people continue to change with or without us there to witness it.
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​Aimee/Amy believes her mother died of a broken heart. Because her last pivotal interactions with her mother were ones of disappointment, Aimee/Amy is wrought with guilt and conflicting feelings as she travels back to China and Eternal Spring to see her family. She faces truths about herself and her family, and what it means to love unconditionally.
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​It is said in the novel that understanding is not necessary for love. You do not have to understand someone fully to love them fully. This one will stay with me for a while.

The exploration or family, death and grief was very beautiful, I was a little confused in places because of the non-linear timeline, but over all is was a beautiful read.

4.5 stars. This book sucked me right in. I ended up listening to the audiobook and I blew threw it quickly, finding excuses to listen some more. The book is narrated by the author, who has a melodic voice well-suited to storytelling. In some ways this is a quiet, simple story about how you can't quite go home again. But with well-placed flashbacks, a compelling cast of characters and a touch of magical realism, it becomes a sweeping folk story about stories, grief, family, home and love. A beautiful and captivating debut.

Thank you @penguinrandomca for the #gifted copy.

Book: The Light Of Eternal Spring
Author: Angel Di Zhang #ownvoices
Fiction, Magical Realism
Under 250 pages
Out Now

A few words to describe this book:

Magical, unique, and beautifully written

After receiving a letter from her sister back in China in a language, she no longer understands. Amy finds out that her mother has passed.

This book takes you on a magical journey as Amy travels back to the tiny village in China where she grew up before leaving to attend school. Not returning to Eternal Springs until now as she mourns the loss of her mother. There are different stories from Amys childhood magically and meticulously woven throughout.

'The Light of Eternal Spring' is a phenomenal book by Angel Di Zhang. I'm genuinely so surprised that this is a debut!

Wu Aimee was born in a small village in China called Eternal Spring. Her mother takes her to a photography studio and this is her first unusual experience where she looks at a picture of New York City and 'falls into the image'. She experiences the photo like she's there in person and that singular event makes her want to move to America and pursue photography. She wants to recreate that moment over and over again. Her mother is not on board with her leaving Eternal Spring and living in a way that is foreign to her family. As Aimee grows more comfortable with the culture in the West and makes less time for her family back home, their relationship grows more and more strained until it's broken. It's only when she receives notice that her mother has passed away that Aimee re-evaluates her life and makes the journey back home to Eternal Spring for her mother's funeral.

Di Zhang does a wonderful job of weaving a story about childhood, ties to the past and culture and familial relationships with magic realism woven throughout. 'The Light of Eternal Spring' is captivating and the writing beautiful.

The relationship between Aimee and her family, particularly her mother hurt my heart and mended it. The journey from childhood to adulthood and the relationship between a mother and daughter, particularly from an Eastern perspective is so rare. I felt the frustration, the hurt, the guilt, and the healing so deeply as I read. Di Zhang has done a wonderful job capturing the perspective of so many women and daughters growing up in the Western world who have to find that middle point between 'back home' and home which is never a clear line.

Aimee's father, sister, grandmother and neighbours were huge highlights as well. They all feel like real people with every reaction and behaviour. I was so engaged throughout this book and taken on an incredibly emotion journey with its beautiful prose, amazing cast of characters and the hints of magic.

However, I wish there was more exploration of the magic realism consistently throughout the book. Aimee experiences her ability to fall into pictures at really poignant moments in the story, which makes sense and is true to the story the author is writing. I personally wanted a bit more acknowledgement of her ability and the magic of the world. Without that acknowledgement, her ability comes across as a feeling rather than something she can actually do.

Nonetheless, I think this is an incredibly strong debut by 'The Light of Eternal Spring' and a book that I will remember always because of how often it made me feel seen. I think anyone and everyone should pick up this book and go on a breathtaking adventure to Eternal Spring.

Thank you so much Penguin Random House Canada for the ARC and opportunity to review!

Thank you NetGalley and the publisher for an advanced copy of this book in exchange for an honest review. Lovely story, fun writing, I wish I was seeing more of this book on socials.

As the first generation of a immigration family I fell the pain from this book.
In China, filial piety is the most important of all virtues. It saying， Those whose parents are still alive should not travel to far-off places. If they have to, then they should have a certain destination.
These virtue, carried on for hundreds of thousands. In the bottom heart of every Chinses, leaving parents behind this the hardest thing to do.
I appreciate Angel Di Zhang give us a brilliant story to describe our feelings. Life family parents, the eternal theme.

5 Stars

The writing is captivating and the photography parts are unique and refreshing.

I appreciate the theme of mother-daughter relationship and the premise was interesting. However it took quite a time for the plot to 'warm up' and meanwhile, I didn't have the patience to wait to connect with the character.
Unfortunately this one didn't work for me.

DNF @11%

This was a beautiful book, with really stunning emotional language, in both familial and romantic interactions. I loved the magical aspects of this book, the way Aimee can fall into pictures and just…be there. I also was so intrigued by the way her father and sister remembered stories so differently from her, and I wish there had been more on that, more conflict on how to overcome one more thing separating Amy from Aimee. I thought the reconciliation between Aimee and her father/her mother’s spirit happened quite abruptly. I loved the relationship between Aimee and her husband; he was so supportive.

Wu Aimee was born in a small village in China called Eternal Spring. After an unusual experience while young and looking at a photograph of New York City, Aimee felt that she had actually gone into the image and could experience the cityscape as a real thing. This event made her realize that she wanted to be an artist so she could recreate the experience. Aimee worked hard academically so she could leave her village and eventually go to New York City.

This single-minded drive, and leaving home, drove a wedge between Aimee and her mother, and years later, married and working as a photographer, she gets a letter from her younger sister telling her that their mother has died.

Aimee is upset, blaming herself, and decides to travel back to Eternal Spring so she can at least be there for the funeral. Arriving at her family home, Aimee discovers that things are a lot different than she remembers, and she must rebuild her relationships and her understanding of who her mother was.

Angel Di Zhang's "The Light of Eternal Spring" is a strong debut novel. It deals with the complicated relationship between mother and daughter, especially when they each want such different things. Zhang also deals with Aimee's experiences as an immigrant, and how that can be disorienting, and can involve segregating or diminishing parts of oneself. Then there is also the shock of returning home and finding too many changes, and struggling with reintegrating all the different parts of oneself after that, which would only be more confusing and painful after the death of a parent. Zhang confidently brings all these themes together in a moving story.

Thank you to Netgalley and to Penguin Random House Canada for this ARC in exchange for my review.

“My mother died of a broken heart, or so the letter said” - The first line of the Novel got all my attention!

Then immediately on the next page -
“ My mother had only said she loved me once, six years ago, on the last day we spoke”

“The Light of Eternal Spring” thoughts 💭

📌 I was so temped to know, what happened between them.

📌 She lives in Manhattan and her mom in China, i also live on the other part of the world from my mom, somehow I wanted to know if things were okay between them!

📌 This is Indigo’s month of May pick up and if you are close to your mom I would recommend you to read 🥺🥺

Are you planning to read this one?

How is this a debut novel? Angel Di Zhang paints a beautiful picture of delicate family relationships within the context of love and loss and grief. The plot revolves around Aimee, who is estranged from her mother and on receiving the news of her death is determined to make amends. The journey, the flashbacks to a story-rich childhood are quietly woven into this wonderfully written book. Love this book! Also, shoutout to a Canadian author!

Di Zhang's novel is soft and heavy atbthe same time. Tracing the life of Aimee as she decides on a path that will lead her away from her home and her mother. When Aimee returns to her not so small village anymore, it is to find her family cold and her mother gone. Not being able to make amends for their strained relationship, Aimee begins unraveling memories to be able to reconcile her future with her past. What follows is an endearing story of family, love, and forgiveness. Of you love to read a story that uses stories, memories, and photographs to share a history, then this is a read you will enjoy.

This book is exquisitely paced. It's a slim novel, the kind of story where each word has been weighed and measured before being placed just so. Every sentence is perfection.

The story follows Aimee, a woman of Manchu descent from northeast China. As a child, she discovers she has the ability to fall into photographs; she's been chasing the experience ever since. Now a photographer in New York City, she learns her mother has died, and along with her American husband, she makes the journey back to her home village for the first time in decades. But everything has changed (like, literally: her village is now a city, and a life abandoned is not as easy to fall back into). It's not unlike an inherent quality of photographs: to capture something so clearly when it only ever existed in that moment as it was.

Each chapter is a snapshot of a moment in her life: eating frozen fruit as a child, hunting for ginseng, her father's elaborate homemade lanterns. To read this book is to wander in the deep hush of an photo exhibit, pausing to examine the details of a picture before moving on to the next, until you emerge replete with the beauty of a whole narrative that is the sum of these fragments.

It's a rich and poignant story of family, loss, and the cost of pursuing your dreams. This is one to savor.

A lovely, tender story about the journey of Amy (Wu Aimee) travelling from New York back to her childhood village in northeast China. Her sister has sent a letter, written in Manchu, saying her mother has passed: died of a broken heart.
Aimee’s relationship with her mother became basically non existent after she left the village to go to Harbin to study and then on to New York to live. Aimee settled herself in NY and began her work as a photographer. This return visit for her mother’s funeral comes with a hope that she can reconcile with her family ie father, sister, grandmother. Aimee’s husband accompanies her to Eternal Spring, offering his support but really not knowing the full extent of the family rift.
To her dismay, Eternal Spring is not the small village she left behind at the age of 18, ten years previously. The village has changed from a few hundred population to a town of two hundred thousand after an oil boom.
Reconnecting with her Manchu heritage and the possible reuniting of love of family in Eternal Spring brings about an unexpected transformation for Aimee.

Lovely read…highly recommend.

Thank you so much to NetGalley and Penguin Random House Canada for my ARC. And also a thank you to Angel Di Zhang for writing this delightful debut novel. I hope we’ll get to read more of her stories!