As the Communist Revolution takes hold in Mainland China, a mother and her three daughters are abandoned by the rest of the family, who flee to escape the Communists. This story follows the mother and daughters as they travel through China, and ultimately to Taiwan, in an effort to find safety and a home.

This is an engaging and moving story. I kept reading and reading, wanting to find out more, and finished the book in about a day. The writing is filled with simple, well-drawn details that evoke daily life in China and Taiwan, and the narrator’s storytelling put me into the emotional world of the characters. It’s a story of love between mothers and daughters, and of courage, perseverance, and hope. Worth a read! I look forward to more from Eve Chung.

It was overly expositional for me, but the writing is easy to read and follow. I stopped after chapter 1 (4%). I’d expect three to four stars from the target audience.

Thank you to NetGalley and Berkley for the ARC.

If I could give this book 6 stars I would: I loved loved loved this book.

This is the story of Hai, living in rural China during the communist revolution of the 1940s. Her father and grandparents fled China shortly before the communists took over, leaving Hai, her mother, and her two little sisters behind to watch the property, because as women and girls, their lives were far less valuable. This begins their horrific ordeal. They go from hiding in a freezing cold shed, to enduring unspeakable horrors from the communist army, to fleeing, walking hundreds of miles on bloody feet. And that’s only the beginning. They face malnourishment and illness, discrimination, violence, and more as Hai’s mother bravely forges on in the hopes of giving her daughters a better life. The fact that this story is inspired by the author’s own grandmother and great-grandmother makes it that much kore compelling. And the fact that this novel maintains its hopeful tone even as Hai and her family endure hardship after hardship is a feat. This story is going to stay with me for a long, long time.