“The gift of a stranger can make the difference of a lifetime.”

I enjoyed this historical fiction novel about a time in history I am not very familiar with — China’s Communist Revolution. Really though, it is about how women and girls were seen as less than in Chinese culture, and one woman’s determination to break that cycle.. The resilience that the main character Hai has is very inspiring and allows her to survive and ultimately thrive against all odds.

I think the line above captures the essence of this book. There were so many times that Hai and her family were taken in and taken care of by relative strangers, many of whom did not have much for themselves, but were willing and happy to share with others.

I’m giving this book four and a half stars. Thanks to NetGalley for the advance copy.

The storyline and characters are very compelling and display the tough and difficult slog of survival for those women left behind by the patriarch, who escaped to Taiwan during the Chinese revolution. The writing transition is a bit rough between the personal and, I bet, largely autobiographical sections of the book. But the fortitude of these determined and self-sacrificing women is remarkable.

Fascinating book, hard to put down, difficult to read about the challenges (and horrors) the women went through. What a compelling window into the history of that period and the status of women. Highly recommended.

An amazing multi generational epic, based on the true experiences of the authors grandmother in China during the communist revolution. The daughter of a landowner, she along with her mother and sisters must find a way to escape and survive when the rest of their family abandons the in the wake of war and revolution. I loved this book, and recommend it to fans of Amy Tan or Lisa See.

This riveting novel, the author’s first and based on the life of her grandmother, follows the fortunes of a mother and three daughters abandoned by their wealthy family in soon-to-be Communist China. It is 1948, and Chairman Mao’s forces are moving into Shandong Province, where the Nationalist Army is in retreat. Although the town of Zhucheng is small and rural, the Ang family owns a palatial estate, built by generations of government officials and scholars.

But even before the war turns against them, the family has little use for its eldest daughter-in-law, Chiang-Yue, who has produced three daughters but no sons. Now she is pregnant again, and because she and her husband have defied his mother and a prophecy, the new child is also guaranteed to be a girl—or so the mother-in-law believes. The family lives by the ancient Chinese proverb “Value men and belittle women,” so even though its second son does have a male heir, the child’s existence is not enough to redeem Chiang-Yue in the eyes of her in-laws.

So when the Communists approach, the rest of the family, including the girls’ father, flee with most of their belongings and leave the narrator, Li-Hai, with her mother and sisters—ostensibly to keep the palatial home from being confiscated by either the People’s Army or impoverished local farmers. Of course, this doesn’t work. Soldiers move into the estate the first day. Then Li-Hai, although only thirteen, is hauled before an impromptu tribunal where she is to stand in for her missing male relatives. She barely escapes with her life and suffers permanent damage to her knees from frostbite. Only Chiang-Yue’s history of treating the villagers kindly saves her and her daughters—first from execution, then from starvation.

Despite the family’s cruel treatment of them, Chiang-Yue insists that duty requires her to rejoin her husband. Thus begins their trek across China, from Zhucheng to the local city hub of Qingdao, then south to Guangzhou (Hong Kong), and eventually across the strait to Taiwan. Hiding in the bushes, scrounging homeless in the streets, surviving a refugee camp—the Ang women and girls are, in their own stubborn way, relentless. And I swear, you will root for them every step of the way.

I plan to interview this author for the New Books Network (link below) around the time of the book’s release.

Daughter’s of Shandong rivals a handful of asian american historical fiction novels I’ve read in my life; It is one of the best books I’ve read in a long time. I read the ‘last’ 70% in one day. Daughter’s of Shandong, a loosely autobiographical novel about a mother and her three daughter’s journey to Taiwan amidst the communist revolution in the late 1940’s. This is my first ARC copy that I have been approved for on NetGalley.com And I am so thrilled I was given the opportunity to devour this intricate, heart wrenching, and powerful love letter to Eve’s late grandmother. As a granddaughter of a first generation immigrant, and the eldest daughter in an all girl family, (with the exception of my dad) this story resonated with me so deeply. The story was so vivid and compelling, it was the first story I’ve read in a while that played in my brain like a picture. It reminded me so much of ‘Beasts of a Little Land by Kim Ju-Hea.
Women’s rights are still an uphill battle we see in the time of the 2020’s unfortunately. It’s novels like these that continue to inspire young women to continue to fight for our rights as humans, women, mothers, and daughters. The over arching themes of feminism, societal inequality, immigration, identity, family ideologies, and poverty, worked simultaneously to create a very realistic and hard hitting story of the hard work and dedication people endure for the ones they love. A wonderful book to add to your reading list. This will become a must read for anyone. Thank you so much NetGalley.com and Berkeley Publishing Group sending me this free copy of this masterpiece.

Fascinating story about life during the communist revolution. Lots of good detail about the struggles they went through.

Marvelous Masterpiece

Daughters of Shandong is The Debut Novel of the Year—if not The Novel of the Year!

It is the engrossing tale of a mother and her daughters, abandoned in enemy territory with little more than the clothes on their backs.

Chung beautifully captures the complex, tangled web of life’s pressures from the obligation to the family, social norms, economic strain, power structures, and the autonomy of the individual while the ship of fate is being blown about by the wind of desperation, hope for the future, and the ripple effects of kindness.

Set in China in the late 1940’s/early 1950’s, this story follows the Ang family who is solidly in the crosshairs of the newly in power Communist regime. Suddenly, this prosperous family’s old way of life has vanished in an instant. Father, Nai Nai (Grandmother) and Yei Yei (Grandfather) pack up all their worldly possessions and hightail it to safety, leaving behind Mother and their daughters in hostile territory with little more than the grit to survive. Will they ever see Father again? And do they even want to?

Based on a true story, this book dazzles—it has scenes as moving as Victor Hugo’s Les Misérables, how one small act of kindness can have such an enormous impact. With the skill of a master craftsperson, Chung impossibly balances the harsh, grim realities of the cruel and dangerous world with the uplifting hope and determination of the women along with the generosity and compassion of strangers (even enemies at times!).

Plus, you have to stick around until the end to see if Nai Nai will finally get her just desserts for being so cruel to Mother.

An unforgettable read that could move a heart of lead, this glowing review couldn’t possibly do this book justice. Captivating, spell binding, extraordinary fail to convey the riveting nature of Daughters of Shandong.

well written, but a bit too long. It's a tough read telling the story of a sisters and their mother as they try and survive in Communist China while attempting to join their family in Taiwan. they survive brutal renunciation, extreme poverty and hunger, and travel throughout the mainland over years until reunified with their father/husband.

"Daughters of Shandong" very swiftly proved to be an immersive and engaging read. Eve Chung's core characters, especially the first-person narrator Hai, were all wonderfully and complexly fleshed out. And I loved how no matter where in China the book took me, I fully felt transported there. However, I think what stuck out to me most was the thick theme of resilience that could be found all throughout the book as Hai and her family fought a veritable army of challenges, ranging from the ravages of civil war to the weight of centuries-old traditional mores favoring boys after girls.

Overall, a spectacular debut for Chung and hopefully just the start of at least several books to come in the future.

Excellent debut. A non-sentimental journey of China's revolution seen through the eyes of women. For lovers of strongly researched historical fiction. I always loved the novels by Pearl Buck as a youth. This novel follows in the footsteps of the best of her work.

“What is the point of saving life if there is no livelihood? We are only living to die another day.”

Daughters of Shandong is based on the authors, family’s story. It takes place during the communist revolution in China. The Ang family is cursed with all girls. Hai is the eldest daughter and she tells the story of her mother’s courage, after her father left her, her mother and sisters to stay and defend their home. Her mother’s resilience and fortitude persevered throughout the story.

Chinese people have a saying, “Value men; belittle women.” Many Chinese woman today are still fighting today to change this culture. Each generation in the story fought harder and harder to make change and to prove the value of women.

Eve J. Chung wrote about her grandmothers fight to save her daughters. She did an incredible amount of research to fill in the pieces of the times. Thank you NetGalley and Berkley Publishing Group for an ARC of this book in exchange for an honest review.

This story took me through it, I didn't know kuch about the civil war and the Chinese involvement. Hai is such a strong character and the things she had to go through from the start is powerful, knowing that people still go through similar struggles. And moving to protect family and the l9ve they have is just amazing and I would recommend this to any and everyone. Such a beautiful story

Set during the communist revolution, the Ang family is worried that the communists will take all of their money and belongings. So they escape their house leaving behind a mother who has not produced any sons and her three daughters to fend for themselves. The communists take over their village, and they must escape to avoid being killed and tortured.

Based on the true story of Chung's grandmother, this is a beautiful and heartbreaking book.

An engaging, insightful, fast-paced historical novel , Daughters of Shandong moves through the trauma of political unrest during mid-century China via the complex relationships of the Ang family. The upheaval between the sisters and mother are deftly parallel to the turmoil of the times. Told through the lens of a girl adapting to chaos while simultaneously recognizing trauma within her own dysfunctional family, the story and characters lingered long after I finished reading it. Eve J. Chung wrote a tremendous story, of the resilience of women, that I was unable to put down.

A debut novel by Eve J. Chung that proved to be a compelling and informative read that follows a mother and her three daughters as they escape the Communist take over of China in 1948. Well drawn characters that highlight just how unimportant women are in Chinese culture, they discover their strength and courage as they suffer unimaginable cruelty, poverty and homelessness while making their way across China to Hong Kong and eventually Taiwan to reunite with the family that abandoned them. This is the fictional account of the author's grandmother's history...and it is definitely a fascinating page turner. Li-Hai is the oldest daughter and it is through her eyes we learn about the Chinese civil war and the horrific abuses that resulted and also the random human kindnesses that gave them hope on their journey. I knew very little about the history of China in this timeframe so am grateful to be educated along with being entertained. This is a 4.5 star for me and a novel that would make an excellent book club selection. I want to thank NetGalley and Berkley for the eARC in exchange for an honest review. This book will be published in May 2024.

An easy read, the Daughters of Shandong follows the harrowing experiences of an abandoned Chinese woman and her three young daughters as they make their way across China to Taiwan to escape Communism and reunite with their family. One of the daughters is a brat, and the mother-in-law is a tyrant which adds to the drama. How that mother put up with such grief is beyond me.

Thank you NetGalley for the privilege of reading this novel in return for my honest opinion.

Human rights lawyer Eve J. Chung draws inspiration from her family’s history to tell the story of Hai, one of the eponymous Daughters of Shandong. Hai is one of four sisters born to the wealthy Ang family. Although the family is privileged, Hai’s life—and the lives of her mother and sisters—is a miserable one of hard work and regular humiliation at the hands of their grandmother. Things get even worse when the Chinese Civil War rips through the country and the Angs abandon Hai, her mother, and her other sisters to keep an eye on the family home until “things blow over.” This novel is difficult to read as the female Angs face violence, hunger, illness, bureaucracy, and relentless sexism.

Hai is the oldest daughter of the Angs and is the kind of child who bears witness to the world around her while she does her chores, studies, and wonders about her future. Her circumscribed life consists of the Ang family. At the head are the repellent Nai Nai, her grandmother, and her grandfather, Yei Yei. Nai Nai and Yei Yei’s will are law. Because Hai’s mother has only had girls, Nai Nai heaps scorn and punishment on Chiang-Yue. It’s almost a relief when the Nationalist Army abandons Shandong and the Communists take over because Nai Nai and the other Angs take everything of value and flee, leaving Chiang-Yue, Hai, and her sisters. Unfortunately, as the only remaining Angs in the area, they are subject to the rough “justice” of the Communists because they’re the only landowners the Communists can get their hands on. Things get increasingly difficult and dangerous after the small family is forced out of the Ang home. They only manage to survive their first encounter with the Communists because of Chiang-Yue’s years of kindness to the family’s tenants.

When life becomes untenable in Shandong Province, Chiang-Yue decides to take her daughters to Qingdao, where the Angs fled. In the first of many disappointments, they find that the Angs followed the Nationalist forces to Taiwan. Chiang-Yue and the girls do their best to keep themselves fed and free while they figure out their next move. Chung says in her afterword that she struggled to find historical documentation from the perspective of Chinese people fleeing the Communists and mainland China in the wake of the civil war; she had to rely on Western accounts for some of what might have happened to the discarded Angs. I found Hai’s descriptions of how she and her younger sister, Li-Di, scammed and scrounged for money and food; the cold, dirty rooms they lived in; and the struggle to get the necessary documents to follow the rest of the Angs so detailed and realistic that I felt like I was trudging along the roads or huddling in their temporary housing with her.

Along with questions about food, housing, and documents, Hai and her family have to wrestle with the more existential question of whether or not they should rejoin the rest of the Angs. On the one hand, there will be safety and sustenance with them. On the other, these are the people who left them to die in mainland China. They know that Nai Nai hates them and Chiang-Yue’s husband—Hai’s father—said nothing when his wife and daughters were deliberately left behind. Hai and her sister Di wonder if their father even wants them, and if it might be better for them to start over on their own in Hong Kong. Life would be more dangerous but they wouldn’t have to deal with Nai Nai’s humiliations.

I was engrossed by Daughters of Shandong, although several parts made me want to shout at people on Hai and Chiang-Yue’s behalf. I loved the rich historical detail of this book and the deep characterization of the main characters. This is an amazing work of historical fiction.

When civil war threatens the Chinese countryside, the Ang patriarch leaves his wife and daughters behind on their farm. Hai, the eldest of the daughters, often fights with her sister Di, who is headstrong and willing to abandon the traditional beliefs of their family. When the Communist army finds the women left behind, they take Hai to a public denunciation in her father’s place, nearly beating her to death. Knowing that they must escape, the women gather their resources and flee. Along the way they are subject to starvation, disease, and unsafe conditions.

This was a well written and engaging book. The author is a great storyteller. The story itself was heartbreaking. I felt for Hai and her family and cheered for them as they endured one thing after another. I would love to read more from this author. Overall, highly recommended.

Daughters of Shangdong
by Eve J. Chung
Pub Date: May 7, 2024
Thanks to the author, publisher and NetGalley for the ARC of this novel in exchange for my honest opinion.
* Historical fiction
A propulsive, extraordinary novel about a mother and her daughters’ harrowing escape to Taiwan as the Communist revolution sweeps through China, by debut author Eve J. Chung, based on her family story. Told in assured, evocative prose, with impeccably drawn characters, Daughters of Shandong is a hopeful, powerful story about the resilience of women in war; the enduring love between mothers, daughters, and sisters; and the sacrifices made to lift up future generations.
This book may be a work of fiction, but it was inspired by true events, was carefully researched, and the many social issues and hardships that the characters faced rang true to me. It's a book that I will probably never stop thinking about and would recommend to everyone, but most especially to women of Chinese descent. I couldn't believe it was written by a debut author.
5 stars