The Tea Girl of Hummingbird Lane by Lisa See

Paperback:  The thrilling new novel from number-one New York Times best-selling author Lisa See explores is a moving story about Chinese tradition, tea farming, and the enduring connection between mothers and daughters.

Li-yan and her family align their lives around the seasons and the farming of tea in their remote mountain village. There is ritual and routine, and it has been ever thus for generations. Then one day a jeep appears at the village gate - the first automobile any of them have seen - and a stranger arrives.

In this remote Yunnan village, the stranger finds the rare tea he has been seeking and a reticent Akha people. In her biggest seller, Snow Flower and the Secret Fan (2005), See introduced the Yao people to her audience. Here she shares the customs of another Chinese ethnic minority, the Akha, whose world will soon change.

Li-yan, one of the few educated girls on her mountain, translates for the stranger and is among the first to reject the rules that have shaped her existence. When she has a baby outside of wedlock rather than stand by tradition, she wraps her daughter in a blanket, with a tea cake hidden in her swaddling, and abandons her in the nearest city.

After mother and daughter have gone their separate ways, Li-yan slowly emerges from the security and insularity of her village to encounter modern life while Haley grows up a privileged and well-loved California girl. Despite Haley's happy home life, she wonders about her origins, and Li-yan longs for her lost daughter. They both search for and find answers in the tea that has shaped their family's destiny for generations.

A powerful story about a family separated by circumstances, culture, and distance, The Tea Girl of Hummingbird Lane paints an unforgettable portrait of a little-known region and its people and a celebration of the bonds of family.

The Tea Girl Of Hummingbird Lane (2017) is a 2018 Audie Award Finalist for Fiction and Multi-Voiced Performance.

About the author:  Lisa See is a Chinese-American author. Her New York Times bestselling books include Snow Flower and the Secret Fan (2005), Dragon Bones (2003), Peony in Love (2007), Shanghai Girls (2009), China Dolls (2012), and Dreams of Joy (2011) which debuted at No 1. Ms See is also the author of On Gold Mountain (1995), which tells the story of her Chinese American family's settlement in Los Angeles. She was named the 2001 National Woman of the Year, by the Organization of Chinese American Women and was the recipient of the Chinese American Museum's Historymakers Award in fall 2003. She lives in Los Angeles.

Rating:  5/5