When I was a child, I thought my destiny was to live and die on the banks of the Xiangjiang River as my family had done for generations. I never imagined that my life would lead me to the Forbidden City and the court of China’s last Empress.
Born in the middle of nowhere, Yaqian, a little embroidery girl from Hunan Province, finds her way to the imperial court, a place of intrigue, desire, and treachery. From the bed of an Emperor, the heart of a Prince, and the right side of an Empress, Yaqian weaves her way through the most turbulent decades of China’s history and witnesses the fall of the Qing Dynasty.
Fans of Amy Tan, Lisa See, Anchee Min, and Pearl S. Buck are sure to love this debut novel by Amanda Roberts. This richly descriptive and painstakingly researched novel brings the opulence of the Qing Court to life as Yaqian and Empress Cixi's lives intertwine over six decades.
Strong sales of over 500 per month nearly 2 years after release. At its height, it sold over 1,000 copies per month for several months. It has consistently been ranked in the top 10 for historical Chinese fiction since its release and often ranks in cultural fiction and biography categories.
I giggled as the silkworm crawled across my feet. The fat little grub inched its way from my heel, along the tips of my toes, and down my ankle. I squealed with laughter as one of my cousins held me down to keep me from removing the worm. I could have kicked it off, but I didn’t want to hurt it, and I enjoyed the sensation. Each little step of the silkworm sent tiny shivers up my legs to the small of my back. And it took hundreds of steps. It was delightful, but I knew it made my cousin happy to think he was torturing me, so I pretended to fight back.
One of my other cousins ran up and bashed his brother in the back of the head with a tree branch. My tormentor lost interest in me and let me go. The boys chased after each other. I could have followed, but I liked being alone with my silkworms. I picked up the little fellow who had been crawling across my toes and placed it on the largest mulberry leaf I could find and then went back to work collecting silkworm cocoons.
My family had a small piece of land near the Xiangjiang River in Hunan. Since my father was an only son and I was his only child, the capital granted us just one plot of land for cultivating silkworms and one for growing food. It was not enough to support a family of three, but we lived next to many members of my mother’s family, who had many sons and, thus, more land. We all lived and farmed and shared together. I had three uncles and seven male cousins. I also had two female cousins, but they were grown and married. They had gone to live with their husbands’ families, so I was the only girl at home from my generation. This was a good thing, though; too many girls would burden the family.
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Chinese
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Unavailable for translation.
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Italian
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Already translated.
Translated by Chiara Cozzolino
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Portuguese
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Already translated.
Translated by Mônica Cristina Campello de Souza
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Spanish
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Already translated.
Translated by Perla Cecilia Carrizales
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