Critical Praise

"I was mesmerized by this wondrous book --- the story of a secret civilization of women, who actually lived in China not long ago. . . . Magical, haunting fiction. Beautiful."

——Maxine Hong Kingston, author of The Fifth Book of Peace

"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. This is an engrossing and completely convincing portrayal of a woman shaped by suffering forced upon her from her earliest years, and of the friendship that helps her to survive."

——Arthur Golden, author of Memoirs of a Geisha

"Lisa See has written her best book yet. Snow Flower and the Secret Fan is achingly beautiful, a marvel of imagination of a real and secret world that has only recently disappeared. It is a story so mesmerizing the pages float away and the story remains clearly before us from beginning to end."

——Amy Tan, author of The Joy Luck Club and The Opposite of Fate: A Book of Musings

"A provocative and affecting portrait."

——Chicago Tribune

"Riveting . . . a story that informs as it charms."

——The San Diego Union-Tribune

"Extraordinary . . . breathtaking."

——Baltimore Sun

"Powerfully alive, unfolding like a waking dream, haunting, magical, and absolutely impossible to forget."

——The Boston Globe

"Both heartbreaking and heartbreakingly lovely . . . immerses the reader in an unimagined world . . . The characters and their surroundings come vibrantly alive."

——The Denver Post