EMPRESS ORCHID is the story of one of the concubines of the Chinese emperor in the last days of the Ch'ing dynasty. Though she is only 17, Orchid rises in the emperor's favor until, as the empire falls, she finds herself in the positi...

Anchee Min's remarkable story reveals both the brutality of oppression and the incredible resilience of the human spirit. A journey of passion and danger, luck and betrayal, told in spare, elegant prose that Newsweek calls 'as delicat...

In the small southern China town of Chin-kiang, in the last days of the nineteenth century, two young girls bump heads and become thick as thieves. Willow is the only child of a destitute family. Pearl is the headstrong daughter of Ch...