Four Treasures of the Sky: The compelling debut about identity and belonging in the 1880s American West

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From the very first line, Zhang warns you that the story isn’t one you would expect, especially if you wish for it to abide by what you must have already read with respect to the plot’s events. Even deeper it illustrates that the past is destined to be repeated when left buried and hidden away. Zhang’s beautiful, limpid prose penetrates surfaces to illuminate the shadows or currents beneath without self-consciousness, the mark of excellent literary fiction…Brilliant.

In the time it takes for me to approach, grab the fish farthest from her, and sprint away, the woman would barely be able to rise to her feet. The novel does seem to avoid any relationship towards trans identities, in case you were looking for that, or any queer aspects as well. We don’t share your credit card details with third-party sellers, and we don’t sell your information to others. There is a lot of telling at the expense of showing, particularly when it is making a point it wants you to know is about something bad (it does not tip into trauma porn though, but readers seeking content warnings should be advised violence and sexual assault are frequent) and many aspects felt overworked. The author does a brilliant job in depicting Daiyu’s emotional growth through the years - from a trafficked child of thirteen in 1883 to a young girl who while admitting that she is safer dressed as a man also struggles with her feelings about Nelson, the young violin teacher she meets in Pierce.This story is a bildungsroman, a 19th-century Chinese girl's journey into adulthood, and her struggle to become the best person she can be at a time when being a girl was a burden in itself. The room of one of Daiyu’s fellow prostitutes “still smells like her, the whistle of citrus layering the air.

Four Treasures of the Sky, the impressive debut novel by Jenny Tinghui Zhang, is a fresh approach to 19th century Wild West framed around the Chinese Exclusion Act and violence towards Chinese labororers told through the eyes of a young Chinese woman brought by force to the United States. No, the artist must master the art of releasing the brush, giving it the space and freedom to find itself again. I had not known about the plight of girls and women who were kidnapped and sent to America to work in brothels. This book is haunting , luscious and precise - it's historical fiction as we most want and need it to be .At her shuffling, loose fish slide down from the top of the heap to the tarp’s edge, where they remain vulnerable and unattended. Zhang’s blend of history and magical realism will appeal to fans of Ta-Nehisi Coates’ The Water Dancer as well as Amy Tan's The Valley of Amazement.

But when she ventures into the market, it is here where she is kidnapped and sent to america to work in a brothel.But when she is kidnapped and forced across an ocean from China to America, Daiyu must relinquish the home and future she imagined for herself. Born to a family of tapestry merchants, her happy childhood is interrupted when at the age of twelve her parents suddenly disappear. I think what kept me from giving it a perfect 5 stars is that this book was set in the late 1800’s but it felt too modern at times. Four Treasures of the Sky is a lovely debut with a lot of heart and a wonderful depth of knowledge and history. Four Treasures of the sky gives a voice to those whose story has been taken away- rewritten and revised.

The writing is persuasive and lyrical and Daiyu's account of learning English is exquisite, but the narrative does sometimes threaten to overwhelm the reader's ability to suspend disbelief.But there’s a sense of urgency in this fiction that reads real and the historical context that unfortunately holds true even in present times. This book is haunting, luscious, and precise—it’s historical fiction as we most want and need it to be. But the surge in anti-Asian sentiment fueled by the Chinese Exclusion Act of 1882 triggers a series of events that changes her destiny irrevocably. and i am so grateful for JTZs father for wanting such a story, because i had no idea how much i wanted it, too. A book to sit alongside Yaa Gyasi's Homecoming and Anna North's Outlawed, this is a powerful tale of reclamation, spun with soul by a remarkable new talent - Lauren Puckett, Shelf Awareness You may also be interested in.