ivyldc 's review for:

Four Treasures of the Sky by Jenny Tinghui Zhang

4.0

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Daiyu is a young girl when her parents are disappeared from their seaside home in China. To protect her, Daiyu’s grandmother sends her to the city of Zhifu where she disguised herself as a boy, Feng. The story opens with Daiyu’s kidnapping by the powerful tong gang. She endures travel to San Francisco where she lives/works in a brothel controlled by the tong. She later escapes and lives under the name Jacob Li in Pierce, Idaho. She has friends, protection, a life, even if she is hiding her true identity.
Here, the story turns from personal hero’s journey to a fictionalization of a true event that happened to five Chinese-Americans in the real Pierce Idaho (this is in the author note).
I was not prepared for the end of this story. It was at once a tragedy and a triumph. I can’t say much without spoilers. This book touches on a part of American history, especially in the American West that has gone untold for too long. The struggles of Chinese immigrants in the era of the Chinese Exclusion Act were something I only vaguely knew. This beautiful, layered history fills in the past to humanize all who suffered. I highly recommend it, and at the same time, hope to see Jenny Tinghui Zhang bring light and joy in her next book.