Snow Flower and the Secret Fan

Lily is the daughter of a humble farmer, and to her family she is just another expensive mouth to feed. Then, the local matchmaker delivers startling news: if Lily's feet are bound properly, they will be flawless. In nineteenth-century China, where a woman's eligibility is judged by the shape and size of her feet, this is extraordinary good luck. Lily, now, has the power to make a good marriage and change the fortunes of her family. To prepare for her new life, she must undergo the agonies of footbinding, learn nu shu, the famed secret women's writing, and make a very special friend, Snow Flower. But, a bitter reversal of fortune is about to change everything. 'Lisa See has written her best book yet ... achingly beautiful, a marvel of imagination of a real and secret world that has only recently disappeared' Amy Tan, author of The Joy Luck Club 'Only the best novelists can do what Lisa See has done, to bring to life not only a character but an entire culture, and a sensibility so strikingly different from our own ... engrossing and completely convincing' Arthur Golden, author of Memoirs of a Geisha 'The wonder of this book is that it takes readers to a place at once foreign and familiar ... Snow Flower and the Secret Fan is a triumph on every level, a beautiful, heartbreaking story' Washington Post 'You can relish See's extraordinary novel as a meticulously researched account of women's lives in nineteenth-century China. But you can also savour See's marvellous narrative as a timeless portrait of a contentious, full-blooded female friendship, one that includes, over several decades, envy, betrayal, erotic love, and deep-seated loyalty' Entertainment Weekly