The Tea Girl of Hummingbird Lane Book Review
At present in Paperback
From #1 New York Times bestselling writer Lisa See, a moving story about tradition, tea farming, and the enduring connection betwixt mothers and daughters.
In their remote mountain hamlet, Li-yan and her family align their lives around the seasons and the farming of tea. For the Akha people, ensconced in ritual and routine, life goes on as it has for generations—until a stranger appears at the village gate in a jeep, the outset automobile whatsoever of the villagers has ever seen.
The stranger'south inflow marks the first entrance of the modern world in the lives of the Akha people. Slowly, Li-yan, one of the few educated girls on her mountain, begins to reject the customs that shaped her early on life. When she has a baby out of wedlock—conceived with a man her parents consider a bad match—she rejects the tradition that would compel her to give the child over to be killed, and instead leaves her, wrapped in a blanket with a tea cake tucked in its folds, well-nigh an orphanage in a nearby city.
Equally Li-yan comes into herself, leaving her insular hamlet for an education, a business, and city life, her girl, Haley, is raised in California by loving adoptive parents. Despite her privileged childhood, Haley wonders about her origins, and beyond the ocean Li-yan longs for her lost daughter. Over the course of years, each searches for significant in the report of Pu'er, the tea that has shaped their family'south destiny for centuries.
A powerful story about two women separated past circumstance, culture, and distance, The Tea Girl of Hummingbird Lane is an unforgettable portrait of a little known region and its people and a celebration of the bonds of family.
Praise for Tea Girl of Hummingbird Lane
Apr 2017 Indie Adjacent Listing Selection
March 2017 Library Reads Selection
An Amazon All-time of the Month Editor's Pick
A Barnes and Noble All-time New Fiction Recommendation for March
"The story begins small, plunging us into the immersive detail of a single grueling day picking tea with the immature girl, Li-yan, her mother, A-ma, and the rest of their ethnic minority Akha family…What makes life bearable for the Akha is their belief system, which infuses every attribute of their daily lives. The full sweep of their practices is flawlessly embedded in See'due south prose…The hardships that confront Li-yan in her life are every bit compelling as the fog-shrouded undercover groves where she and her mother cultivate a special healing tea. I could have hung out here in remote China forever, just Encounter has wider ground to encompass, including Chinese adoption, the international fine tea marketplace and modern Chinese migration to the United States… A lush tale infused with clear-eyed pity, this novel will inspire reflection, discussion and an overwhelming desire to beverage rare Chinese tea."– Helen Simonson, The Washington Post
"One of the fascinating elements of Run across'southward epic novel is the contrast between the isolated lives of the Akha and the globalized world of China's larger cities — a contrast bridged by tea…Fans of the best-sellingSnowfall Flower and the Secret Fan will find much to admire inThe Tea Girl of Hummingbird Lane, equally both books closely illuminate stories of women'southward struggles and solidarity in minority-ethnic and rural Chinese cultures…In rendering the complex hurting and joy of the mother-daughter bond, Lisa See makes this novel — defended to her own mother, author Carolyn Encounter, who died last year — a securely emotional and satisfying read."—Emily Gray Tedrowe, USA Today
"Lisa Encounter transports readers to the remote mountains of China…come for the heartwarming bonding between mother and daughter; stay for the insight into Akha culture and the fascinating (really) history of the tea trade."—Real Simple
"Enlightening… Encounter'south extensively researched story of the tea product in Yunnan Province, peculiarly the rare Pu'er tea unique to Bound Well Village and the mountains nearby, is fascinating…Come across's ambitious novel touches on Chinese cultural history, the centuries-sometime intricacies of the tea business organisation and both the difficulties and joys of Chinese-American adoptions. But ultimately it's a novel nigh the strength of mother-daughter ties—peopled, as is each of See's novels, with strong characters with whom the reader empathizes from the get-go folio to the concluding." —Deborah Donovan, Bookpage
"With bright and precise details most tea and life in rural China, Li-yan'southward gripping journey to find her daughter comes alive." —Publishers Weekly
"Run across, herself partly of Chinese beginnings, creates a complex narrative that ambitiously includes China's political and economical transformation, little-known cultural history, the intricate challenges of transracial adoption, and an insightful overview of the global implications of specialized teas…Come across's focus on the unbreakable bonds between mothers and daughters, past birth and by circumstance, becomes an extraordinary homage to unconditional dearest."—Booklist
"The aphorism 'no coincidence, no story,' from Communist china's Akha minority serves every bit the backbone for this latest offering from See. Coincidences grow in this illuminating novel that contributes historical and social insight into the Akha…With strong female characters, See deftly confronts the irresolute role of minority women, majority-minority relations, East-W adoption, and the economy of tea in mod Mainland china." —Library Journal
"Engrossing…a riveting exercise in fictional anthropology." —Kirkus Reviews
What Readers Are Saying Nearly The Tea Girl of Hummingbird Lane
Crystal Fernandez :
I ought to know improve by now. Don't start a new Lisa Run across volume correct before bed. In fact, don't bring a Lisa See book anywhere near your bed. You will never get to sleep on time. I stayed up and then late last night reading this book that I cruel asleep while I was reading. I was awakened past my kindle falling onto my face when my easily relaxed. Don't laugh, yous know y'all've been there.
This was an engrossing read. Information technology was a gentle, thoughtful, and idea-provoking book. A young girl named Li-yan is part of the Akha people living in rural China. They are considered an indigenous minority and are very isolated from modernistic lifestyles. Her family's life revolves around their traditions and heritage, and the growing of tea. Li-yan, on the other hand is dissimilar. She has aspirations, she is intellectually curious, bright and kind hearted. Unfortunately, she becomes pregnant out of wedlock and this is what drives her story.
Information technology's a wonderful book. About the ties of family, heritage, tradition , civilization and how those things demark us to each other. Our shared story, our love for one another, are like roots that anchor the states while nosotros travel through life. They give us stability and are invaluable. I'm so envious. My family is a multi-generation American family. We have roots in Spain, France and Italy and besides part of the Native American tribes of New United mexican states and Arizona. My family has moved on from the reservation so long agone that no i alive remembers anymore what it was like, the details of our community, linguistic communication or who our people were. Somewhere along the line, we assimilated. To my mind, it'south a terrible thing. I suppose that'southward i reason why I love Ms. See'due south books so much. They are rich and full of life, full of people who are able to retain their connection with the past.
I also can be sure that I will e'er learn something new from a book past Ms. Run into. My favorite, Peony in Dear, taught me about Chinese opera and the Chinese afterworld. Information technology is a beautiful, poetic book. From Shanghai Girls I learned virtually the awful Nanking atrocities, Angel Island and the immigrant experience in California. The 2nd novel in the Shanghai Daughter series, Dreams of Joy, taught me a groovy deal nigh the Cultural Revolution in China and the Corking Leap Forrard. Both of those books are tragic and wonderful.
I was and then thrilled to receive this book from the publisher. I knew I would savour it. I'm quite certain I'll be reading it again in the futurity. Don't hesitate to read information technology too if you bask Women's Literature or books about China.
Anne Foster :
I was already a fan of Lisa See's novel, Snow Flower and the Secret Fan, then I had high expectations for this novel and I was not disappointed! A beautiful and heartbreaking story of a mother in Prc forced to surrender her newborn girl who is then adopted past parents in America, it intertwines Li-yan'southward story with daughter, Haley equally they both struggle to survive in dissever cultures. We feel Li-yan's pain as she is forced to abandon her family unit and homeland, and then empathize equally she embraces modernistic civilisation to become a global denizen and find new happiness and love. We see Haley grow from a sickly babe into a lovely and intelligent immature woman who seeks answers nigh her heritage and homeland. Tea making is the beautiful motif that binds the two women together and I wept at the mystical, lyrical conclusion. What a treasure this novel is; it will resonate with me for a long time!
Tina Falconer:
I have read anybody of Lisa Run across'due south volume and have e'er been a large fan. This will exist one of my favorites. The story is most "daughter", a member of the Akha tribe, a colina people in Yunnan prefecture in Red china. Akha grow and collect tea and not and so many years agone where shut off almost completely from modern society – no Tv set, no schooling really, no electricity. A potent conventionalities in spirits and the natural earth acquired many superstitions similar getting rid of human rejects and non touching spirit gates. Daughter overcomes these obstacles and becomes a tea seller that owns her own company, while the Akha world is changing rapidly due to the contact with modernism. Loved the story and accompanying history lesson near Pu'er tea and the Akha minority population.
Heighten Your Reading Experience
Learn more about the inquiry forThe Tea Girl of Hummingbird Lanehere.
To learn how to have your own Tea-Tasting Book Social club, click hither.
To learn more about tea, come across videos about the Akha and look at Lisa'south photos from her trip to Yunnan, click here.
Source: https://www.lisasee.com/books-new/the-tea-girl-of-hummingbird-lane/
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