Snow Flower and the Secret Fan
A Novel
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Narrated by:
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Jodi Long
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By:
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Lisa See
About this listen
Snow Flower and the Secret Fan is a brilliantly realistic journey back to an era of Chinese history that is as deeply moving as it is sorrowful. With the period detail and deep resonance of Memoirs of a Geisha, this lyrical and emotionally charged novel delves into one of the most mysterious of human relationships: female friendship.
Lily is haunted by memories of who she once was, and of a person, long gone, who defined her existence. She has nothing but time now, as she recounts the tale of Snow Flower, and asks the gods for forgiveness.
In 19th-century China, when wives and daughters were foot-bound and lived in almost total seclusion, the women in one remote Hunan county developed their own secret code for communication: nu shu ("women's writing"). Some girls were paired with laotongs, "old sames", in emotional matches that lasted throughout their lives. They painted letters on fans, embroidered messages on handkerchiefs, and composed stories, thereby reaching out of their isolation to share their hopes, dreams, and accomplishments.
With the arrival of a silk fan on which Snow Flower has composed for Lily a poem of introduction in nu shu, their friendship is sealed and they become "old sames" at the tender age of seven. As the years pass, through famine and rebellion, they reflect upon their arranged marriages, loneliness, and the joys and tragedies of motherhood. The two find solace, developing a bond that keeps their spirits alive. But when a misunderstanding arises, their lifelong friendship suddenly threatens to tear apart.
©2005 Lisa See (P)2005 Random House Inc. Random House Audio, a division of Random House Inc.Listeners also enjoyed...
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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 Hundred Wells of Salaga
- A Novel
- By: Ayesha Harruna Attah
- Narrated by: Janina Edwards
- Length: 6 hrs and 37 mins
- Unabridged
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Aminah lives an idyllic life until she is brutally separated from her home and forced on a journey that turns her from a daydreamer into a resilient woman. Wurche, the willful daughter of a chief, is desperate to play an important role in her father's court. These two women's lives converge as infighting among Wurche's people threatens the region, during the height of the slave trade at the end of the nineteenth century. The Hundred Wells of Salaga offers a remarkable view of slavery and how the scramble for Africa affected the lives of everyday people.
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The Song Poet
- A Memoir of My Father
- By: Kao Kalia Yang
- Narrated by: Kao Kalia Yang
- Length: 8 hrs and 5 mins
- Unabridged
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Bee lost his father as a young boy and keenly felt his orphanhood. He would wander from one neighbor to the next, collecting the things they said to each other, whispering the words to himself at night until one day a song was born. Bee sings the life of his people through the war-torn jungle and a Thai refugee camp. But the songs fall away in the cold, bitter world of a Minneapolis housing project and on the factory floor until, with the death of Bee's mother, the songs leave him for good.
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Beautiful, full of sadness, power, and heart.
- By Melissa L. Magana on 04-27-17
By: Kao Kalia Yang
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Peony
- A Novel of China
- By: Pearl S. Buck
- Narrated by: Kirsten Potter
- Length: 12 hrs and 31 mins
- Unabridged
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Young Peony is sold into a rich Chinese household as a bondmaid - an awkward role in which she is more a servant, but less a daughter. As she grows into a lovely, provocative young woman, Peony falls in love with the family's only son. However, tradition forbids them to wed. How she resolves her love for him and her devotion to her adoptive family unfolds in this profound tale, based on true events in China over a century ago.
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Jews in China
- By Jean on 04-22-12
By: Pearl S. Buck
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City of Tranquil Light
- A Novel
- By: Bo Caldwell
- Narrated by: Bronson Pinchot
- Length: 9 hrs and 50 mins
- Unabridged
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Will Kiehn is seemingly destined for life as a humble farmer in the Midwest when, having felt a call from God, he travels to the vast North China Plain in the early twentieth century. There he is surprised by love and weds a strong and determined fellow missionary, Katherine. They soon find themselves witnesses to the crumbling of a more than two-thousand-year-old dynasty that plunges the country into decades of civil war.
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What We're Here For
- By Annette on 10-14-10
By: Bo Caldwell
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The Town House
- By: Norah Lofts
- Narrated by: Juliet Prague, Martyn Read
- Length: 17 hrs and 22 mins
- Unabridged
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"It was in the first week of October in the year 1391 that I first came face to face with the man who owned me… the man whose lightest word was to us, his villeins, weightier than the King’s law or the edicts of our Holy Father…” So began the story of Martin Reed - a serf whose resentment of the automatic rule of his feudal lord finally flared into open defiance.
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Another winner by Norah Lofts
- By Bird Lady 147 on 10-03-17
By: Norah Lofts
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Monticello
- A Daughter and Her Father; A Novel
- By: Sally Cabot Gunning
- Narrated by: Cassandra Campbell
- Length: 11 hrs and 53 mins
- Unabridged
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After the death of her beloved mother, Martha Jefferson spent five years abroad with her father, Thomas Jefferson, on his first diplomatic mission to France. Now, at 17, Jefferson's bright, handsome eldest daughter is returning to the lush hills of the family's beloved Virginia plantation, Monticello. While the large, beautiful estate is the same as she remembers, Martha has changed. The young girl who sailed to Europe is now a woman with a heart made heavy by a first love gone wrong.
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Very good Narrator !
- By Roxie Reed on 05-23-24
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Anna the Prophetess
- By: H. B. Moore
- Narrated by: Luone Ingram
- Length: 7 hrs and 10 mins
- Unabridged
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Anna the Prophetess is the dramatic chronicle of the only woman to be called prophetess in the scriptures. When Anna’s great niece Julia is exiled to Jerusalem as punishment for her refusal to marry a man old enough to be her father, Anna shares the story of her early days of courtship with her husband. Although Julia’s parents admonished her to observe firsthand how lonely Anna’s life is, Julia instead discovers that her great-aunt’s life is far from lonely - it is full of love, peace, and incredible faith.
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It Kept Me Listening
- By cgashley on 02-16-19
By: H. B. Moore
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The Wife's Tale
- A Personal History
- By: Aida Edemariam
- Narrated by: Adjoa Andoh
- Length: 9 hrs and 52 mins
- Unabridged
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In this indelible memoir of the life of her remarkable 95-year-old grandmother, Guardian journalist Aida Edemariam tells the story of modern Ethiopia - a nation that underwent a tumultuous transformation from feudalism to monarchy to Marxist revolution to democracy, over the course of one century. Filled with a vivid cast of characters - emperors and empresses, priests and scholars, monks and nuns, archbishops and slaves, Marxist revolutionaries and wartime double agents - The Wife's Tale introduces a woman both imperious and vulnerable.
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A Look At Ethiopia
- By Jean on 07-15-18
By: Aida Edemariam
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Women of the Bible
- Jael's Story
- By: Ann Burton
- Narrated by: Effie Johnson
- Length: 6 hrs and 54 mins
- Unabridged
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Ann Burton - best-selling author of Rahab's Story - pens a sweeping historical novel about the Biblical heroine who risks all by wielding a tent peg and mallet. In this compelling tale of faith, courage, and romance, Jael boldly seizes a pivotal opportunity to free Israelites - and herself - from years of oppression.
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Easy to place yourself in the story!
- By CANDICE W. on 08-07-24
By: Ann Burton
What listeners say about Snow Flower and the Secret Fan
Average customer ratingsReviews - Please select the tabs below to change the source of reviews.
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- Amazon Customer
- 04-27-17
Absolutely worth reading
The story is beautiful in its simplicity and honesty. There is wisdom here for each of us. It is easy to relate to Snow flower and Lily and I am grateful to have experienced their story. The remarks from the author, at the end, were just as touching as the story itself. Thank you for sharing their story with us!
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- Anonymous User
- 06-10-19
This is an abridged book!
This book grabbed me from page one and my only disappointment is on how quickly it was over. I loved it. However, after finishing it, I found another version on audible that is 11+ hours long! I've returned this one and begun listening to the full length. Definitely find the longer one & listen to that one. Excellent story!
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6 people found this helpful
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- The Casual Nerd
- 07-19-17
Hauntingly Immersive and Culturally Rich
What made the experience of listening to Snow Flower and the Secret Fan the most enjoyable?
Snow Flower and the Secret Fan has been tucked within my reading list for several years now. I am ashamed of that fact, as I feel it deserves much more attention than I initially gave it.
“Seventy-five years have gone by, and I still remember the feel of the mud between my toes, the rush of water over my feet, the cold against my skin. Beautiful Moon and I were free in a way that we would never be again.”
Lily is a young girl being raised among poverty in 19th century China. When she is presented with the opportunity to be paired with a laotong (old same) she is excited at the prospect of a lifelong friend, Snow Flower. For years they will exchange fans containing secret letters written in Nu Shu, a language that has been developed by Chinese women to carry their messages safe from the eyes of men. These letters will become part of a story full of happiness, sadness, and all facets of life. But when a misunderstanding arises and mistakes are made, all that Lily loves becomes compromised. Will this friendship come to a tragic end or survive the test of time?
This is an exceptional title that it is difficult to review in full because it is sure to be a truly unique experience for the individual. Since this was a journey laden with complex feelings for myself, I am going focus only that aspect for purpose of this review. It is my goal to encourage you to explore this title and develop your own thoughts.
Snow Flower and the Secret Fan was much more challenging than I could have ever predicted. This is a culturally saturated read that explores some facets that are hard to digest. The practice of foot binding being one. I want to openly state right now that there were scenes in relation to the practice of binding that made my stomach turn and that is no easy feat. But I feel that the author’s ability to depict these moments so graphically is significant in regards to fostering a true understanding within the reader. This is a barbaric ritual that poses life threatening risks and left many women crippled. The intensity of See’s description solicits a very appropriate feeling that is necessary.
“They should be small, narrow, straight, pointed, and arched, yet still fragrant and soft in texture.”
Narrated with elegant prose, this is a story that effortlessly evokes emotions ranging from empathy to frustration and finally some semblance of understanding but not exactly acceptance. It is difficult to acknowledge just how trivialized women were within the Chinese cultural and society during the setting of Snow Flower and the Secret Fan. The amount of emphasis placed directly on outward “beauty” is infuriating. The author has represents these aspects in such a manner that it is easy to understand why having a laotong would be invaluable for our narrator.
“She looked at me the way all mothers look at their daughters—as a temporary visitor who was another mouth to feed and a body to dress until I went to my husband’s home.”
See provides us with something remarkable that stands to be indisputable evidence of the amount of time and care that must have went into the research and composure of Lily’s story. Arresting and tragically haunting, this is a book to be devoured and savored slowly. Highest recommendation to all who seek memorable historical fiction that is deliciously rich in culture.
What was one of the most memorable moments of Snow Flower and the Secret Fan?
The author's graphic depiction of foot binding and the portrayal of how undervalued women were within the society will forever remain with me.
What about Jodi Long’s performance did you like?
The fluid tone and pace of the narration was inviting and evoked the appropriate emotions, adding additional depth to the story.
Did you have an extreme reaction to this book? Did it make you laugh or cry?
Snow Flower and the Secret Fan was a challenging read that solicited a wide variety of emotions ranging from sadness to frustration. The final impression was not only memorable but insightful and thought provoking.
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Overall
- Rainlily
- 10-16-10
a gem
A lovely read from beginning to end. This was one of my first downloads and a favorite.
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- Mrs. P
- 08-26-19
Book vs Audio
The audio version skips multiple paragraphs throughout the whole book. I like reading from a hard copy and listening at the same time, and it’s one of the hardest things to do with this audio. Very annoying. But the book itself is good
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1 person found this helpful
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- NNN
- 01-19-18
interesting full of detail
Not my favorite Lisa See book but as always informative and well written. Lisa see shines in Chinese Culture.
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- Mary
- 07-16-06
Awesome Book
I absoluttely loved this book!! The narrator was very good, and I couldn't stop listening. Awesome book in my opinion.
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3 people found this helpful
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- shswngirl
- 12-06-12
Had some nice moments, but a little flat sometimes
What did you like best about Snow Flower and the Secret Fan? What did you like least?
I really like the atmosphere here, and the mystique surrounding the younger Snow Flower. I also enjoyed it when I found out the truth about her. Also, the descriptions of this culture and its traditions and environment were well done, as was the use of the fan to communicate. The pacing of this story, and the rather unchanging narration were a bit disappointing. The narrator's voice and presentation were engaging enough, so I'm not sure how to pinpoint what made it feel slow; perhaps the plot itself was just a tad slow for me, but I do recognize that this is literary fiction, so it's more character-driven than plot-driven.
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1 person found this helpful
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- Mom of 3 kids
- 01-28-17
great read
read tks in payback before I listened to it, it is still a great book. recommend it to everyone
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- Mehnaz
- 07-08-05
Great Read !!!
I loved this book..if you like historical fiction, and you like to learn about different cultures this book is the perfect book. The narrator did a wonderful job,she is one person reading but she changes her voice so cleverly you think she is 10 different characters, the content of the book is also very entertaining, definately worth your time
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3 people found this helpful