The Bonesetter's Daughter

Amy Tan

Ballantine Books, 2003 - Fiction - 400 pages

““As compelling as Tan’s first bestseller, The Joy Luck Club. . . No one writes about mothers and daughters with more empathy than Amy Tan.”
–The Philadelphia Inquirer

“[An] absorbing tale of the mother-daughter bond . . . this book sing[s] with emotion and insight.”
–People


Ruth Young and her widowed mother, LuLing, have always had a tumultuous relationship. Now, before she succumbs to forgetfulness, LuLing gives Ruth some of her writings, which reveal a side of LuLing that Ruth has never known. . . .

In a remote mountain village where ghosts and tradition rule, LuLing grows up in the care of her mute Precious Auntie as the family endures a curse laid upon a relative known as the bonesetter. When headstrong LuLing rejects the marriage proposal of the coffinmaker, a shocking series of events are set in motion–all of which lead back to Ruth and LuLing in modern San Francisco. The truth that Ruth learns from her mother’s past will forever change her perception of family, love, and forgiveness.


“A strong novel, filled with idiosyncratic, sympathetic characters; haunting images; historical complexity; significant contemporary themes; and suspenseful mystery.”
–Los Angeles Times

“For Tan, the true keeper of memory is language, and so the novel is layered with stories that have been written down–by mothers for their daughters, passing along secrets that cannot be said out loud but must not be forgotten.”
–The New York Times Book Review

“Tan at her best . . . rich and hauntingly forlorn . . . The writing is so exacting and unique in its detail.”
–San Francisco Chronicle

What people are saying

LibraryThing Review

User Review  - browner56 - LibraryThing

Ruth Luyi Young’s life is not going exactly as she planned. As a middle-aged, first-generation Chinese-American woman living in San Francisco, she has a monotonous job as a ghostwriter for other ...

LibraryThing Review

User Review  - Auntie-Nanuuq - LibraryThing

I did the best I could, I even skimmed & jumped. I just did not like the characters, and for me that is the deal breaker Art, Ruth's Anglo significant other, basically drops the responsibility of his ...

Contents

• Section 1: 1
• Section 2: 6
• Section 3: 9
• Section 4: 36
• Section 5: 61
• Section 6: 85
• Section 7: 99
• Section 8: 112
• Section 9: 139
• Section 10: 159
• Section 11: 184
• Section 12: 217
• Section 13: 236
• Section 14: 254
• Section 15: 277
• Section 16: 293
• Section 17: 311
• Section 18: 339
• Section 19: 356
• Section 20: 366
• Section 21: 387

About the author

Amy Tanis the author ofThe Joy Luck Club,The Kitchen God’s Wife,The Hundred Secret Senses,and two children’s books,The Moon LadyandThe Chinese Siamese Cat, which has been adapted asSagwa, a PBS series for children. Tan was also the co-producer and co-screenwriter of the film version ofThe Joy Luck Club, and her essays and stories have appeared in numerous magazines and anthologies. Her work has been translated into more than twenty-five languages. Tan, who has a master’s degree in linguistics from San Jose University, has worked as a language specialist to programs serving children with developmental disabilities. She lives with her husband in San Francisco and New York.


From the Paperback edition.

Bibliographic information

• Title: The Bonesetter's Daughter; Ballantine Reader's Circle
• Author: Amy Tan
• Edition: reprint
• Publisher: Ballantine Books, 2003
• ISBN: 0345457374, 9780345457370
• Length: 400 pages
• Subjects: Fiction / General