Dreams of Joy

Description

Nineteen-year-old Joy Louie has run away from her home in 1950s America to start a new life in China. Idealistic and unafraid, she believes that Chairman Mao is on the side of the people, despite what her family keeps telling her. How can she trust them, when she has just learned that her parents have lied to her for her whole life, that her mother Pearl is really her aunt and that her real father is a famous artist who has been living in China all these years? Joy arrives in Green Dragon Village, where families live in crowded, windowless huts and eke out a meagre existence from the red soil. And where a handsome young comrade catches her eye... Meanwhile, Pearl returns to China to bring her daughter home - if she can. For Mao has launched his Great Leap Forward, and each passing season brings ever greater hardship to cities and rural communes alike. Joy must rely on her skill as a painter and Pearl must use her contacts from her decadent childhood in 1930s Shanghai to find a way to safety, and a chance of joy for them both. Haunting, passionate and heartbreakingly real, this is the unforgettable new novel by the internationally acclaimed Lisa See.

Lisa See is the author of six previous novels, including the critically acclaimed New York Times bestsellers Shanghai Girls, Peony in Love and Snow Flower and the Secret Fan, Flower Net (which was nominated for an Edgar Award), The Interior, and Dragon Bones. She is also the author of the widely acclaimed memoir On Gold Mountain. She lives in Los Angeles.

'Deep and unforgettable . . . one of the best depictions of the true spirit of motherhood you'll ever see in fiction' 'A saga that presses topical buttons ... there is plenty of high emotion and heartbreak, plus the fascination of its setting' 'Once again, See's research feels impeccable, and she has created an authentic, visually arresting world' 'See paints a vivid portrait of communist China. Her rich detail and astonishing research of the time is breathtaking'