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Peach Blossom Spring
- A Novel
- Narrated by: Eugenia Low
- Length: 14 hrs and 10 mins
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Publisher's summary
In this "beautifully rendered" novel about war, migration, and the power of telling our stories, three generations of a Chinese family search for a place to call home (Georgia Hunter, New York Times bestselling author).
"Within every misfortune there is a blessing and within every blessing, the seeds of misfortune, and so it goes, until the end of time."
It is 1938 in China and, as a young wife, Meilin’s future is bright. But with the Japanese army approaching, Meilin and her four year old son, Renshu, are forced to flee their home. Relying on little but their wits and a beautifully illustrated hand scroll, filled with ancient fables that offer solace and wisdom, they must travel through a ravaged country, seeking refuge.
Years later, Renshu has settled in America as Henry Dao. Though his daughter is desperate to understand her heritage, he refuses to talk about his childhood. How can he keep his family safe in this new land when the weight of his history threatens to drag them down? Yet how can Lily learn who she is if she can never know her family’s story?
Spanning continents and generations, Peach Blossom Spring is a bold and moving look at the history of modern China, told through the story of one family. It’s about the power of our past, the hope for a better future, and the haunting question: What would it mean to finally be home?
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Critic reviews
“Magical, and powerful, Peach Blossom Spring brings to life the costs of wars and conflicts while illuminating the spirit of human survival. Inspired by her father’s real-life experiences and her determination to comprehend her family’s past, Melissa Fu has gifted us with a timely, moving, and universal novel.” (Nguyen Phan Que Mai, author of The Mountains Sing)
"A beautifully rendered meditation on the trials and triumphs of a family torn apart by war, Peach Blossom Spring left me pondering how the stories we choose to pass down have the power not only to define us, but to buoy us - to help us persevere through the most challenging of times.” (Georgia Hunter, New York Times best-selling author of We Were the Lucky Ones)
“Peach Blossom Spring is a sweeping epic that transports the reader from war-torn China, where a mother consoles her son with ancient fables, through to modern-day America, where a little girl searches for her identity and the secrets of her father’s history. Melissa Fu effortlessly conjures a world rich in texture, taste and detail in this gentle, heartfelt, and moving story. It’s glorious and tender, exquisitely written and beautifully nuanced. I finished it with tears in my eyes and will be recommending it to everyone I know.” (Jennifer Saint, author of Ariadne)
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India, 1870s. In a tiny village where society is ruled by a caste system and women are defined solely by marriage, young Biren Roy dreams of forging a new destiny. When his mother suffers the fate of widowhood - shunned by her loved ones and forced to live in solitary penance - Biren devotes his life to effecting change.
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Riveting Love Story
- By Granny on 01-15-20
By: Shona Patel
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The Orphan Keeper
- By: Camron Wright
- Narrated by: Simon Vance
- Length: 10 hrs and 57 mins
- Unabridged
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Seven-year-old Chellamuthu's life - and his destiny - is forever changed when he is kidnapped from his village in Southern India and sold to the Lincoln Home for Homeless Children. His family is desperate to find him, and Chellamuthu anxiously tells the Indian orphanage that he is not an orphan, he has a mother who loves him. But he is told not to worry, he will soon be adopted by a loving family in America.
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5 Star Worthy
- By Kari on 10-26-16
By: Camron Wright
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A Golden Age
- A Novel
- By: Tahmima Anam
- Narrated by: Madhur Jaffrey
- Length: 9 hrs and 9 mins
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As young widow Rehana Haque awakes one March morning, she might be forgiven for feeling happy. Today she will throw a party for her son and daughter. In the garden of the house she has built, her roses are blooming, her children are almost grown, and beyond their doorstep, the city is buzzing with excitement after recent elections. Change is in the air.
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sad, poignant, thought-provoking, beautiful
- By Rio Delta Wild on 06-04-08
By: Tahmima Anam
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Diamond Head
- A Novel
- By: Cecily Wong
- Narrated by: Nancy Wu, Samantha Chen, Angela Lin, and others
- Length: 12 hrs and 49 mins
- Unabridged
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Told through the eyes of the Leongs' secret-keeping daughters and wives and spanning the Boxer Rebellion to Pearl Harbor to 1960s Hawaii, Diamond Head is a breathtakingly powerful tale of tragic love, shocking lies, poignant compromise, aching loss, heroic acts of sacrifice, and miraculous hope.
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.
- By Gina on 09-06-15
By: Cecily Wong
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Mosaic
- By: Diane Armstrong
- Narrated by: Deidre Rubenstein
- Length: 19 hrs and 56 mins
- Unabridged
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>i>Mosaic is compelling storytelling at its best - from the fascinating details of Polish-Jewish culture and the rivalries and dramas of family life, to its moving account of lives torn apart by war and persecution, this an extraordinary true story of a family, and of one woman's journey to reclaim her heritage.
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Absolutely excellent!
- By Roberta on 09-22-11
By: Diane Armstrong
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The Women in the Castle
- By: Jessica Shattuck
- Narrated by: Cassandra Campbell
- Length: 12 hrs and 38 mins
- Unabridged
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Set at the end of World War II, in a crumbling Bavarian castle that once played host to all of German high society, a powerful and propulsive story of three widows whose lives and fates become intertwined - an affecting, shocking, and ultimately redemptive novel from the author of the New York Times notable book The Hazards of Good Breeding.
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Skating On The Thin Ice Of Life
- By Sara on 04-29-17
By: Jessica Shattuck
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Secrets of a Charmed Life
- By: Susan Meissner
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Current day, Oxford, England. Young American scholar Kendra Van Zant, eager to pursue her vision of a perfect life, interviews Isabel McFarland just when the elderly woman is ready to give up secrets about the war that she has kept for decades...beginning with who she really is. What Kendra receives from Isabel is both a gift and a burden--one that will test her convictions and her heart.
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Rare 5-Star Across the Board!
- By Imamomof4 on 06-14-15
By: Susan Meissner
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One Amazing Thing
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- Narrated by: Purva Bedi, Soneela Nankani, Neil Shah
- Length: 7 hrs and 57 mins
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Winner of a Pushcart Prize for poetry and an American Book Award for her short stories, Chitra Banerjee Divakaruni explores themes of women, immigration, and her vibrant Indian culture to great effect. Divakaruni expands on these ideas in One Amazing Thing, a project long in the making and full of electric prose.
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An ok way to kill some time
- By R.Reader on 11-07-12
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Hum If You Don't Know the Words
- By: Bianca Marais
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- Length: 14 hrs and 25 mins
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Life under Apartheid has created a secure future for Robin Conrad, a 10-year-old white girl living with her parents in 1970s Johannesburg. In the same nation but worlds apart, Beauty Mbali, a Xhosa woman in a rural village in the Bantu homeland of the Transkei, struggles to raise her children alone after her husband's death. Both lives have been built upon the division of race, and their meeting should never have occurred...until the Soweto Uprising.
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Completely wrong accents
- By Debbie on 02-12-22
By: Bianca Marais
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Honor
- By: Elif Shafak
- Narrated by: Mozhan Marno, Piter Marik
- Length: 12 hrs and 54 mins
- Unabridged
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An honor killing shatters and transforms the lives of Turkish immigrants in 1970s London. Internationally best-selling Turkish author Elif Shafak’s new novel is a dramatic tale of families, love, and misunderstandings that follows the destinies of twin sisters born in a Kurdish village. While Jamila stays to become a midwife, Pembe follows her Turkish husband, Adem, to London, where they hope to make new lives for themselves and their children. In London, they face a choice: stay loyal to the old traditions or try their best to fit in.
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Complex but Compelling
- By Cariola on 04-14-13
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Lost in Translation
- By: Nicole Mones
- Narrated by: Angela Lin
- Length: 14 hrs and 14 mins
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A novel of searing intelligence and startling originality, Lost in Translation heralds the debut of a unique new voice on the literary landscape. Nicole Mones creates an unforgettable story of love and desire, of family ties and human conflict, and of one woman's struggle to lose herself in a foreign land - only to discover her home, her heart, herself.
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Absolutely fascinating!
- By Brendan on 10-16-10
By: Nicole Mones
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The Kite Runner
- By: Khaled Hosseini
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- Length: 12 hrs and 1 min
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Why we think it’s a great listen: Never before has an author’s narration of his fiction been so important to fully grasping the book’s impact and global implications. Taking us from Afghanistan in the final days of its monarchy to the present, The Kite Runner is the unforgettable story of the friendship between two boys growing up in Kabul. Their intertwined lives, and their fates, reflect the eventual tragedy of the world around them.
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A Worhty Read
- By P. C..S. on 08-17-03
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Jerusalem Maiden
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In the waning days of the Ottoman Empire, a young Orthodox Jewish woman in the holy city of Jerusalem is expected to marry and produce many sons to help hasten the Messiah's arrival. While the feisty Esther Kaminsky understands her obligations, her artistic talent inspires her to secretly explore worlds outside her religion, to dream of studying in Paris - and to believe that God has a special destiny for her. When tragedy strikes her family, Esther views it as a warning from an angry God....
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No dreaming, No painting, No thinking . . .
- By Debbie on 04-18-15
By: Talia Carner
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What listeners say about Peach Blossom Spring
Average customer ratingsReviews - Please select the tabs below to change the source of reviews.
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- Elizabeth H. Callison
- 12-17-22
A Fabulous Book of Family hopes and dreams
The setting begins during the attack of Japan on China., back in a time that few Americans know about. The stuggkes of family separations, dreams being lost but hope never far away—the faith of a mother and son and the love they shared. Beautifully written and performed on Audible.
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- WolfeGirl23
- 01-21-23
Started out strong but ended up just OK
The reader had some mouth noises (described by another reviewer as "wet" sounds) that took a bit to get used to. I personally never stop listening to a book based on whether or not I like a reader as I would hate to miss out on a wonderful story for just that reason, so I persevered and eventually got used to her.
The book itself started out really well. I was in love with Meilin and Renshu from the start. I most especially loved Meilin's scroll and the stories she told Renshu with the Scroll. But as the book progressed with Renshu moving to America, becoming Henry Dao, the story started to become weaker. When Lily was introduced, and her character progressed, I began to lose interest and just wished the book would hurry up and end. The ending could have been so much more. It was disappointing to me. I felt the author could have done so much more with tying Meilin's story of the peach blossom spring into the ending of the book.
Overall, I thought this book was OK. It had the potential to be a wonderful generational saga but fell short. Still, I am glad I listened.
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- T. Rosen
- 12-06-22
Multigenerational family story intimately portrayed
From a striking opening paragraph to the final coda, each character was beautifully brought to life and emotionally developed. I cared deeply from the second sentence when I was told that the wives names were irrelevant to the last peach carefully cut open, lovingly eaten. At turns angry, frustrated, head-slapping, eyes-rolling, cheering, smiling and crying. This is a rich landscaped history.
I’m hoping the scroll is real and I can find it one day.
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- Clara
- 10-06-22
Immigration story spanning generations
I found this book to be engaging and well told. My dad was a war orphan and then refugee to this country from behind the iron curtain in Eastern Europe. Parts were very relatable to my experience, while other aspects were unique to immigrants from Taiwan/China and then of course to this family specifically. Sometimes difficult, but overall an enjoyable listen! I would especially recommend for 1st gen us citizens- we will never fully comprehend the hardships our parents went through, that’s one reason they came here, because they didn’t want us to.
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- Jill Dero
- 08-28-22
Needs a better narrator
The story was okay but the narrator was British and mad no attempt at a Chinese accent when voicing the characters in the story. It seemed odd to have the characters speak in a British accent.
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1 person found this helpful
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- Amanda Ladymon
- 09-01-22
wonderful
This is an incredible story. I enjoyed every word. It felt like historical fiction.
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- Sarah
- 05-30-23
Wonderful, heart wrenching story
Historical fiction is my jam and even though Peach Blossom Spring was a slow start for me, once I got through a few chapters it drew me in. This is a multi generational story of a Chinese family and a search for identity, belonging, and place. Journey through WW II between China and Japan, the Chinese Civil war that follows, communist take over and the exile to Taiwan. Although it is a work of fiction, the story and characters felt so real. There’s a portion in the later part of the book where one character discovers peace through knowing the stories of a generation even if they don’t know their own particular story. There is much suffering and grief wound in this story but also resilience, rebuilding, and the beauty of heritage. I love the Asian folktales and story of the scroll woven throughout this story. It ends so beautifully which is how I want all stories to be.
The narrator has a light accent but that just made listening to the story even better imo.
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- Janice B.
- 08-30-22
Difficult listening
I really wanted to love this book. After living and working in Asia for 22 years I have a great appreciation for China’s history and heritage. But this book was just painful.
The story is read, not performed in any way, and is reminiscent of how I read to my classroom of children with a little excitement, and few gruff voices for male characters. Ms Low is what I think of as a “wet reader”, with excessive lip-smacking, swallowing, lip-moistening, and just a general annoying wetness. Too close to microphone? Dentures? I don’t know what it is, but it is exceedingly distracting to the listener. Further, the reader’s Singaporean/British accent seems inauthentic for a book on China history. And there wasn’t much “lyrical” about the writing, it was more a recitation of events and dialogue. I found myself hungry for better descriptions of the landscapes and emotions of the story.
In short, I slogged through this listen, hoping to appreciate what it had to offer, but I would instead recommend Wild Swans for a three-generational story line, or Snow Flower and the Secret Fan for characters that come alive in their culture.
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4 people found this helpful
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- Nina Y.
- 01-26-23
A must read for any child of immigrants
Listened to this story for my book club, and so glad it was chosen for this months reading. I would have never picked up a book like peach blossom spring on my own, but I loved the story!
There were moments that made me laugh, cry, and found myself comparing parts of the story to my life as a first generation American!
Some parts were slower than others and I thought gosh get on with it but overall the story was woven together so beautifully I would recommend.
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- Essozimna Moise Ekpai
- 03-29-22
It good
it is a mostly calm and mellow story that is just a good read for anyone.
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