Original language:
English Translated from: English
Authors: Tan, Amy
Translated by: Karsokienė, Aušra
Full translated source bibliographical description:
Tan, Amy. The Valley of Amazement. HarperCollins Publishers, 2013.
ISBN: 9786094661167
Published in: Vilnius
Published on: 2015
Publisher: Tyto alba
Spanning fifty years and two continents, The Valley of Amazement is a tale of three women, connected by personal rebellion, betrayal, and a mysterious painting called “The Valley of Amazement.” The story opens in 1905, in a first-class courtesan house in Shanghai, Hidden Jade Path, run by Lucia, a willful and wild American woman who was once herself the proprietress of Shanghai’s most exclusive courtesan house, nurses her own secret wounds, which she first sustained when, as a teenager, she fell in love with a Chinese painter and followed him from San Francisco to Shanghai.Her search for penance and redemption will bring her to a startling reunion with Flora, Violet\’s daughter, and will shatter all that Violet believed she knew about her mother.
Violet is one of the most celebrated courtesans in Shanghai, a beautiful and intelligent woman who has honed her ability to become any man\’s fantasy since her start as a “Virgin Courtesan” at the age of twelve. For the next two decades, Violet takes us on a careening journey steered by self-will, reckless desires, and clear-eyed resolve. The struggle to understand who she really is and her search for a home in the world. Abandoned by her mother, Lucia, and uncertain of her father\’s identity, Violet\’s quest to truly love and be loved will set her on a path fraught with danger and complexity-and the loss of her own daughter.
Amy Tan’s, The Valley of Amazement is a deeply moving narrative novel of family secrets, the legacy of trauma, and the profound connections between mothers and daughters.With characteristic wisdom, grace, and humor, author conjures a story of the inheritance of love, its mysteries and senses, its illusions and truths.