The Light of the Eternal Spring by Angel Di Zhang is about a daughters regret in not seeing her mother and resolving their relationship before her death. Amy Hilton born Wu Aimee must return home to her village in China, Eternal Springs to attend her mother’s funeral and repair her estranged relationship with her family. The novel weaves masterfully between her present day and her childhood memories of her mother and family. This is a magical novel to treasure and reread when you’ve lost your way and need a reminder of why where and who you come from is so important.

Thank you to NetGalley and Random House Canada for the ARC in exchange for my honest review.

Amy Hilton, born Wu Aimee in the small Chinese village of Eternal Spring is a photographer in NYC and has lost touch with her roots. When she receives a letter from her sister written in her mother tongue of Manchu, she needs to take it to Chinatown to get it translated - where she finds out her mother has died of a broken heart. Amy feels guilty for leaving her family, first for school, then to pursue her art and finally to marry a white man. She flies to China, haunted by her mother's stories and tries to pick up where she left off.

This is a beautiful immigrant story, interwoven with art. Amy struggles to balance her identity as a Chinese American woman - which I think anyone who is either an immigrant themselves or is from an immigrant family thinks about from time to time. The fine balance of where you come from and where you are now. This book has been described as including magical realism because Amy has the ability to "fall" into photographs, and I didn't even notice until after - if you know me, anything magical is usually a turn-off, but with Amy's artistic perspective it didn't even feel unreal - after all don't we all get immersed or lost in a piece of art once in a while?

What a beautiful literary debut novel! This book is written in such a lyrical style it is hard not to fall in love with the story.
It is a heartbreaking story of regret, mother-daughter relationships, and unspoken love.
Aimee, or Amy, as she and her American husband calls her, tries to make amends with her mother once she learns of her death. But once she flies back to China, she finds that there was no funeral, rather her ashes were already spread by her family. She feels she is too late, and can never say the things she wanted to her mother before she died.
She is so devastated that she loses her sight until she makes peace with her decisions.
But she has to learn to make peace with the way things worked out in order to get on with her life and be happy.
A sad story that teaches us to tell our loved ones how we feel before it's too late.

The Light of Eternal Spring is very moving story that entices the reader through travel and self-discovery while tenderly visiting the topics of grief, loss, identity, and relationship to home. There’s an element of magic and illusion in its telling and the use of photography as a subject and Angel Di Zhang’s musical style of writing make The Light of Eternal Spring a fully immersive experience.

Wu Aimee was born in a Northeastern village in China and moved to NYC to pursue her career as a photographer. She hasn't been back to her village in over a decade and lost touch with her Manchu roots and family. When she received news about her mother's death, Aimee returns to Eternal Spring to grieve her mother and reconcile with her family.

This was a tender and beautiful debut novel about grief, belonging, complex mother-daughter relationship, sisterhood and forgiveness. Zhang does a wonderful job of blending traditional Manchu storytelling and magical realism together. It was lyrical and captivating from the get-go and I was immediately pulled into the story. The chapters switch back and forth between past and present and we gain a better understanding of who Aimee was when she was younger through her recounting of certain memories and the decisions she made which led to her move to NYC. We also watch Aimee and her mother's relationship develop and change throughout the years.

I love that this novel teaches us (especially children of immigrants) to be proud of our heritage, our roots, our traditions and even our given names which may not be common in Western society. Only when we accept those parts of ourselves and embrace where we come from, are we able to heal and love ourselves wholly.

I'm excited to see what else Angel Di Zhang puts out in the future. Thanks to Penguin Random House Canada for the eARC.

4/5

A beautifully written, reflective and touching read - I can't believe this is a debut novel!

The Light of Eternal Spring follows Aimee who, between leaving for school, moving to America, becoming a photographer and marrying a white man, has lost a part of who she used to be, of where she came from. As she returns to her tiny hometown village in China following her mother's passing, which she blames herself for, Aimee embarks on a journey to make amends with her family, redefine who she is and find her artistic inspiration once again.

This story was full of illustrative details and poetic storytelling - whether recounting Aimee's childhood memories or describing her return trip home. I have never read something that so seamlessly blends emotional, sad and touching moments with delicate humour, creativity and happiness. Even better that it's by a Canadian author! I truly cannot wait to read Angel Di Zhang's next book.

This book is beautiful in a quiet way.

Aimee’s return home after her mother’s passing is told through the many colourful Manchu tales her mother shared with her growing up. The author’s writing painted a really beautiful world in my mind.

It had me both smiling and tearing up. Solid 4.5 ⭐️

I was given an ARC of this book and my opinions are my own.

A beautifully written debut novel from Angel Di Zhang. When Amy receives notice that her mother has died, never having recovered from her daughter leaving home, she heads back to China to reconnect with her remaining family. But the family and home she left behind are not as she remembers, and Amy wonders if it is really possible to feel at home again..

Amy left Eternal Springs when very young and moved to New York to pursue her dream of becoming a photographer. When she receives a letter from her sister saying their mother passed away, she and her husband travel to China to attend her mother’s funeral. During the journey home Amy discovers her birth country is different and when she finally arrives her family doesn’t seem to happy to see her.

This novel was a quick and easy read with a straight forward plot. I enjoyed reading it and quickly engaged with following Amy on her journey of reconnecting with her family and herself. There were moments where I teared up and others where I laughed as Amy rediscovered the joy of her childhood and home through current/flashbacks of interactions with her friends and family, I think it would make a decent book club pick and would recommend it to readers who enjoy stories of self discovery.

Many thanks to Net Galley and Penguin Random House Canada for providing me with a copy of this ebook for review.

This was a lovely, fresh interpretation of both an immigrant story and a mother-daughter story.

Amy/Aimee is born and raised in a tiny and very rustic village in Northern China. That in itself made the book fairly novel, as most books set in China that I've read concentrate on city life, often in Shanghai. Rural/agrarian novels tend to be historical rather than contemporary.

We start in present day New York, with Amy learning of the death of her mother. As she endeavors to make the very long and arduous trip home to China, we get extended flashbacks of Amy's childhood in Eternal Spring. Amy worked hard to qualify for a place in the city school and kept moving further and further away from her childhood home. Once she settled in New York City, about as diametrically opposed to her native village as a city could be, the disconnect with her family grows, and solidifies with her mother's rejection of Amy's very white (and very nice) fiancée (now husband).

When Amy learns that her mother has died, she can no longer avoid a visit home, with her wonderfully supportive husband in tow. In Eternal Spring again, she learns the hard way that you really can never go home again. Her village is now a bustling modern city, and she can't get her bearings or navigate. The dirt-floored house she grew up in has been replaced with a convenience store. The disconnect is so profoundly jarring Amy loses her vision (a symbolic and tragic occurrence for a professional photographer) and must come to terms with her guilt and grief to restore it.

It's a beautiful meditation on the importance of remembering and celebrating your roots, including dying languages, shamanic healing and herbal medicine, and oral folklore traditions. Only by making peace with both sides of her natures can Amy heal, emotionally and physically.

The book is full of small, elegant touches that emphasize the children's fable feeling of the story, including motifs and metaphors of light, photography, vision, and ginseng.

Debut novel The Light of Eternal Spring by Canadian author Angel Di Zhang is Magical. It is a profoundly beautiful. It is a lovely story about love, loss and growth. It has well-rounded and developed characters brought out by poignant humour and reflection.

Thank you #netgalley for an advanced copy of this book in exchange for an honest review.

I wasn't quite sure what to expect from this one, but it delivered a lighthearted journey of a woman grieving and coming to terms with her choices.

The writing had me right beside the MC in New York or Eternal Spring, and the descriptions had me picturing exactly what the characters were seeing and doing.

The emotional journey the MC went through wasn't as captivating as it could have been. I felt we didn't know the MC well enough when she gets the news that changes her situation, and I wish we'd understood her more before the story took off. I wanted more depth and layers to her and the other characters, which could have provided a more heartwrenching and engaging novel.

Overall, this was a very okay read. I don't think it will have a lasting impression, but I enjoyed the fairly quick story.

Thank you NetGalley for the advanced copy of this novel to provide an honest review.

I wasn't sure about this novel at first. I felt that the story was going to be a bit disjointed. I was very mistaken, the novel pulled together and grabbed my interest by the second chapter.

I do enjoy novels from parts of the world I am not familiar with, combined with the touch of mysticism, this novel had a lot going for it.

The story made me want to hug my Mom and make my daughters read it! Well written, emotionally balanced (some teary parts balanced with some tender parts) and just a joy to read.

I received a free ARC through NetGalley.
This was a gentle dream of a book, delving through the magic of photography, Manchu mythology, family dynamics, intercultural divides, and the never ending march of time.
Amy Hilton (born Wu Aimee) is a successful commercial photographer living in New York in 1999 with her loving, solar power engineer husband David. Her life is completely shattered when she receives a letter from her sister in Manchu, a language she can no longer read. After having the note translated she realizes her mother has died unexpectedly, having not seen each other in over a decade.
Amy must travel to China and reconnect with her family and the little girl she once was before she can find the mother she thinks she's lost: fully reconciling her identity as both Amy and Aimee.
The magical realism elements are light, but support the fable-like qualities of the novel. Most notable is Aimee's ability to "fall into" photographs, and her mother's stories, interpretations of Manchu legends, woven into the narrative.
I enjoyed the sections dealing with Aimee's childhood, the family dynamics are nuanced and the way art weaves through her life is enchanting. Her father is someone I wish I could sit with, work on our sketchbooks, and drink some tea.
A lovely debut novel, and would be a perfect read for a short vacation, or curled up in a comfy chair with a big mug of coffee.

This is one of the best books I’ve read in a long time. The Light of Eternal Spring is a tender and immersive literary debut from author and artist Angel Di Zhang, whose writing style is truly cinematic and imaginative. The story moves between the past and present, from NYC to the village of Eternal Spring in northeast China, and follows Aimee whose ambitions were always too grand for the village where she grew up. As she forges a path for herself in NYC, she struggles to reconcile with the roots and relationships she left behind in Eternal Spring.

The book explores themes of home, identity, culture, and family, but one of the things I appreciated most about this novel is how it touches on different ways of knowing and being. It emphasizes the importance of storytelling throughout generations, reconnecting with lost cultures and family, and finding your way home. The writing is beautiful and descriptive, and the eloquent analogies make the story so much richer. Throughout the novel, there’s a strong emphasis on longing, connection, and a desire to create art that’ll have a lasting impact.

There's nothing I would change about this book, I only wish I had more time to read it all in one sitting because it deserves that much.

Thank you to NetGalley and Penguin Random House for a digital arc in exchange for an honest review. I’m grateful to have this book at the top of my list!

Thank you to netgalley for providing a digital advanced copy for my honest opinion.

The book follows Aimee (Amy), a girl from a small northeastern Chinese village who dreams of pursuing art in New York. While successful in her ambition, she loses touch with her Manchu roots, her family, and especially her relationship with her mother. When she hears that her mother has died, she returns to Eternal Spring in search of forgiveness, and herself.

The book was beautifully well written, poetic, and symbolic. It weaves magical realism with the spirits of Manchu storytelling. Aimee's internal struggle between her Manchu heritage and her American Dream can be related to by many diaspora. I particularly enjoyed the connections she had with prominent female figures in her life including her sister, her aunt, and her mother, each unique and nuanced.

I had difficulties enjoying the allegorical way of writing in some points; it felt quite random at times with no real follow up. I felt deeply ingrained in Aimee's imagined world instead of the real world (maybe that's intentional, but to me detracted from the lesson of the story). This type of writing also deterred character development aside from Aimee herself. I did not get to fully understand anyone else in the story or their relationship to Aimee. For example, Aimee and David, who's relationship is especially crucial, did not feel developed enough for me to believe it. I felt similarly with her father, who's conflict did not seem resolved. Aimee's relationship with her mother, a key driving force of Aimee's character development, also felt extremely one-sided (albeit one of them is not there) but to me didn't seem resolved.

3.75/5.

Thank you net galley for giving me this opportunity to read the book 'The Light of Eternal Spring'.
This is a story of a young Chinese girl Aimee who griws up in the village of Eternal Spring.
Aimee is an ambicious girl. She wants to further her education and to see the world outside of her small village.
Aimee gets accepted at a secondary school in Hariban. Her mother would prefer Aimee to stay in Eternal Spring.
Aimee is into photography and goes to university.
When Aimee is 18 she goes to New York City on her own and soon is dating David a caucasion man. They eventually get married.
Amy as she now known as in the states receives a letter from her home town saying that her mother has died.
Amy and David eventually go to China to visit her family.
Amy's mother never did forgive her for moving overseas.
Amy makes peace with her remaining family members who live in Eternal Spring.

A beautiful story about culture and family, and the search for one’s identity when two cultures collide.
Ever since Aimee’ mother brought her to see a photographer when she was a little girl, she had wanted to become a photographer and live in New York.
Leaving her family, their Manchu traditions and her country behind, she succeeds in becoming an American photographer.
But when she wants to marry her white fiancé David, her mother is adamantly against it. So much so that her parents fly home with staying for the wedding.
After years of no communication, Aimee learns of her mothers death. Aimee and David race to China hoping to make it in time for her mother’s funeral.
This is a beautiful story about the complicated relationship between a mother and daughter, and about learning to heal and forgive one’s self.
Thanks to NetGalley and Random House Canada for a digital copy in exchange for my honest opinion.

Absolutely loved the book. I would definitely recommend it.. The author has written a beautiful story. The book is well edited. Once I started to read the story, I couldn't put it down. I look forward to reading other books Angel Di Zhang.

This is a beautiful book. When Aimee hears about her mother's death, she is devastated. She thinks that because she now lives in America, that her mother died of a broken heart. There was much left unsaid and, from Aimee's point of view, unhealed.

The intertwinning of past and present was lovely, and a bit sad as well. You see so much how the relationship between a mother and daughter isn't always what it seems. That things left unsaid can cause so much grief.