New Releases by Lisa See

In seventeenth-century China, three women become emotionally involved with "The Peony Pavilion," a famed opera rumored to cause lovesickness and even death.

Chine, XVIIe siècle. Recluse dans les luxueux appartements des femmes, Pivoine tue le temps avant son mariage. Mais plutôt que de se livrer aux exercices convenables - broderie ou chant -, elle préfère se plonger dans de dangereuses lectures qui exaltent l''amour fou. Lorsque, à l''occasion de son anniversaire, son père lui permet d''assister, cachée derrière un paravent, à la représentation de son opéra favori, Pivoine s''éprend d''un élégant poète. La passion brûlera la jeune fille et l''emmènera dans un voyage qui durera bien au-delà de sa propre mort..

A la Xina del segle XIX, les nenes eren recloses, aïllades i sotmeses a una tortura que els havia de garantir un bon matrimoni: els embenaven els peus ajuntant-los els dits amb el taló, perquè quan fossin grans quedessin de la mida, forma i textura ideals; de set centímetres. En aquest context, a la remota província de Hunan les dones van desenvolupar el seu propi codi per poder mantenir lligams entre elles. El nushu els permetia traçar missatges als ventalls o brodar-los en mocadors i així comunicar-se de manera secreta. Amb precisió històrica i una gran càrrega lírica i emocional, Lisa See ens explica la història de dues dones que, gràcies a aquest llenguatge mantingut en secret durant milers d''anys, són capaces de trobar en l''amistat el sentit de la seva vida.

“I finally understand what the poets have written. In spring, moved to passion; in autumn only regret.” For young Peony, betrothed to a suitor she has never met, these lyrics from The Peony Pavilion mirror her own longings. In the garden of the Chen Family Villa, amid the scent of ginger, green tea, and jasmine, a small theatrical troupe is performing scenes from this epic opera, a live spectacle few females have ever seen. Like the heroine in the drama, Peony is the cloistered daughter of a wealthy family, trapped like a good-luck cricket in a bamboo-and-lacquer cage. Though raised to be obedient, Peony has dreams of her own. Peony’s mother is against her daughter’s attending the production: “Unmarried girls should not be seen in public.” But Peony’s father assures his wife that proprieties will be maintained, and that the women will watch the opera from behind a screen. Yet through its cracks, Peony catches sight of an elegant, handsome man with hair as black as a cave–and is immediately overcome with emotion. So begins Peony’s unforgettable journey of love and destiny, desire and sorrow–as Lisa See’s haunting new novel, based on actual historical events, takes readers back to seventeenth-century China, after the Manchus seize power and the Ming dynasty is crushed. Steeped in traditions and ritual, this story brings to life another time and place–even the intricate realm of the afterworld, with its protocols, pathways, and stages of existence, a vividly imagined place where one’s soul is divided into three, ancestors offer guidance, misdeeds are punished, and hungry ghosts wander the earth. Immersed in the richness and magic of the Chinese vision of the afterlife, transcending even death, Peony in Love explores, beautifully, the many manifestations of love. Ultimately, Lisa See’s new novel addresses universal themes: the bonds of friendship, the power of words, and the age-old desire of women to be heard.

Chinese edition of Peony in love. A fantastic historic novel set in the 1800''s China. A girl fantasizes herself as the heroine in the classic Peony Pavilion. She had her wish. She was the reincarnation of the heroine.

When the body of an American archaeologist turns up in the Yangtze, Liu Hulan, an agent for the Chinese government, and her American husband, David Stark, investigate and find that the murder may be tied to a missing priceless artifact.

Peony er eneste barn til en velstående kinesisk adelsmann og hans førstekone. Hun er et høyt elsket barn, men er likevel bortlovet til en mann hun aldri har møtt i det hun nærmer seg 16-årsdagen sin. Hun lever nærmest i fangenskap og har aldri snakket med andre menn enn faren. Hun er oppdratt til å være lydig, men har likevel egne hemmelige drømmer. Faren bestemmer seg for å sette opp en teaterforestilling i deres egen hage. Denne oppsetningen, og en av skuespillerne i den, blir starten på Peonys uforglemmelige historie om kjærlighet og skjebne, lidenskap og sorg i 1800-tallets Kina.

“Lisa See begins to do for Beijing what Sir Arthur Conan Doyle did for turn-of-the-century London or Dashiell Hammett did for 1920s San Francisco: She discerns the hidden city lurking beneath the public facade.” –The Washington Post Book World In the depths of a Beijing winter, during the waning days of Deng Xiaoping’s reign, the U.S. ambassador’s son is found dead–his body entombed in a frozen lake. Around the same time, aboard a ship adrift off the coast of Southern California, Assistant U.S. Attorney David Stark makes a startling discovery: the corpse of a Red Prince, a scion of China’s political elite. The Chinese and American governments suspect that the deaths are connected and, in an unprecedented move, they join forces to see justice done. In Beijing, David teams up with the unorthodox police detective Liu Hulan. In an investigation that brings them to every corner of China and sparks an intense attraction between the two, David and Hulan discover a web linking human trafficking to the drug trade to governmental treachery–a web reaching from the Forbidden City to the heart of Los Angeles and, like the wide flower net used by Chinese fishermen, threatening to ensnare all within its reach. “A graceful rendering of two different and complex cultures, within a highly intricate plot . . . The starkly beautiful landscapes of Beijing and its surrounding countryside are depicted with a lyrical precision.” –Los Angeles Times Book Review “Murder and intrigue splash across the canvas of modern Chinese life. . . . A vivid portrait of a vast Communist nation in the painful throes of a sea change.” –People “Fascinating . . . that rare thriller that enlightens as well as it entertains.” –San Diego Union-Tribune A Finalist for the Edgar Award for Best First Mystery A NEW YORK TIMES NOTABLE BOOK

“See paints a fascinating portrait of a complex and enigmatic society, in which nothing is ever quite as it appears, and of the people, peasant and aristocrat alike, who are bound by its subtle strictures.”—San Diego Union-Tribune While David Stark is asked to open a law office in Beijing, his lover, detective Liu Hulan, receives an urgent message from an old friend imploring her to investigate the suspicious death of her daughter, who worked for a toy company about to be sold to David’s new client, Tartan Enterprises. Despite David’s protests, Hulan goes undercover at the toy factory in the rural village of Da Shui, deep in the heart of China. It is a place that forces Hulan to face a past she has long been running from. Once there, rather than finding answers to the girl’s death, Hulan unearths more questions, all of which point to possible crimes committed by David’s client. Suddenly Hulan and David find themselves on opposing sides: One of them is trying to expose a company and unearth a killer, while the other is ethically bound to protect his client. As pressures mount and danger increases, Hulan and David uncover universal truths about good and evil, right and wrong–and the sometimes subtle lines that distinguish them. Praise for The Interior “[See] illuminates tradition and change, Western and Eastern cultural differences. . . . All this in the middle of her thriller which is also about greed, corruption, abuse of the disadvantaged, the desperation of those on the bottom of the food chain, and love.”—The Tennessean “Sophisticated . . . graceful . . . See’s picture of contemporary China’s relationship with the United States is aptly played out through her characters.”—Los Angeles Times “Immediate, haunting and exquisitely rendered.”—San Francisco Chronicle

Een jong meisje uit het China van de 17e eeuw beleeft de (on)mogelijkheden van haar cultuur heftig, waarbij haar leven tragische ontwikkelingen kent.

Lily is the daughter of a humble farmer, and to her family she is just another expensive mouth to feed. Then the local matchmaker delivers startling news: if Lily''s feet are bound properly, they will be flawless. In nineteenth-century China, where a woman''s eligibility is judged by the shape and size of her feet, this is extraordinary good luck. Lily now has the power to make a good marriage and change the fortunes of her family. To prepare for her new life, she must undergo the agonies of footbinding, learn nu shu, the famed secret women''s writing, and make a very special friend, Snow Flower. But a bitter reversal of fortune is about to change everything.

In nineteenth century China, in a remote Hunan county, a girl named Lily, at the tender age of seven, is paired with a laotong, or "old same," in an emotional match that will last a lifetime. The two women exchange messages written on silk fans and handkerchieves using nu shu, a unique language that women created in order to communicate in secret, sharing their experiences, but when a misunderstanding arises, their friendship threatens to tear apart.

Au cœur de l''hiver, à Pékin, pendant les dernières semaines du règne de Deng Xiaoping, le fils de l''ambassadeur des Etats-Unis est retrouvé assassiné, pris dans les glaces d''un lac gelé. Peu après, au large de la Californie, les agents du FBI découvrent le corps d''un " Prince rouge ", le fils d''un dignitaire chinois, à bord d''un cargo clandestin. Devant ces deux morts qui semblent causées par un même et mystérieux poison, les gouvernements chinois et américains décident d''allier leurs forces. David Stark, assistant de l''attorney général, se rend à Pékin où il fait équipe avec l''inspectrice Liu Hulan. Leur enquête les mènera sur la piste d''un trafic aussi lucratif que celui de l''héroïne... Ce suspense implacable et sanglant entraîne le lecteur dans les lieux les plus insolites de Pékin. Lisa See lève le voile sur la Chine d''aujourd''hui - sa culture ancestrale, son économie florissante, sa cruauté institutionnalisée - et nous révèle sous des aspects insoupçonnés.

A thriller on a joint American-Chinese investigation into the smuggling of immigrants and human organs. Featuring a Chinese policewoman and an American lawyer, the novel examines cultural differences.

Li-yan and her family align their lives around the seasons and the farming of tea. 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, " 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.