This was most enjoyable. I enjoyed the descriptions of China and Taiwan, and learnt more about life there. The descriptions of family life and the struggle to fit in were handled well.

Definitely an enjoyable book, though at times the pacing was a little offputting. I found it at its most compelling in the sections featuring Renshu in the US and Lily exploring her mixed race identity.

It cannot be denied that a debut author who produces an intergenerational family saga takes on an ambitious project, following in the footsteps of famous novelists such as Elizabeth Jane Howard. Melissa Fu succeeds in her ambition, as Peach Blossom Spring is truly a unique work.
The saga starts in the late 1930s in mainland China, when young mother Meilin and her four year old son Renshu flee their home to avoid capture by the Japanese army. As they migrate through a country increasingly torn apart by the second Sino-Japanese War, mother and son draw sustenance from the ancient fables in a beautifully illustrated scroll that Meilin has been able to rescue.
In the second part of the saga, Renshu is an adult and has settled in the USA under the name of Henry Dao. He resists all attempts by his daughter Lily to open up about his childhood. But without confronting his past, will Henry be able to create the warm, harmonious family home that he and Meilin so craved?
Drawing on the ancient Peach Blossom Spring fable written in 421 CE, this is a warm and thoughtful novel that sets out the inner strength, resilience and inventiveness that people draw on in their pursuit of a stable home. Warmly observed and described, Meilin, Henry and Lily are each complex and well-written characters. I cannot recommend this novel highly enough and am already intrigued as to what Melissa Fu will publish next. Thank you to the publishes and to NetGalley for the free ARC of this moving book.

The narrative spans generations and continents and begins in 1938 in China as the Japanese army are invading the country.

Meilin, a young mother and widow will do anything for her son Renshu’s survival. They travel through war torn China and on to Taiwan enduring hunger, bombings, the loss of their home and family. Finally able to put down roots Renshu excels in school and is offered a scholarship in the U.S.
Leaving Meilin behind, Renshu embraces his new American life and becomes Henry Dao. Henry marries and has a daughter, Lily whom he has a turbulent relationship with as he keeps his culture, language and past hidden from her.

This is a beautiful and moving story about motherhood, survival, fatherhood, immigration and culture.

I loved Melissa Fu’s poetic writing style. It was honest, heartbreaking and yet joyous. The stories that Meilin tells Renshu from the scroll were so beautiful and humbling. I didn’t want this book to end! I can’t wait to read more of Melissa’s work in the future.

Highly recommended for fans of Wild Swans, The Joy Luck Club and Eat Drink Man Woman.

This debut novel tells the story of a family from the horrors of the Second World War to the 2000s - from China to the US. This is a story of migration, of identity, prejudice and heritage. Meilin flees China with her son Renshu and members of her family, when the Japanese army invades China. We follow them on their journey to Taiwan and later to the US, where Renshu will have to face racism and the everlasting suspicion of being a communist.

Melissa Fu's writing style makes it very easy to enjoy this story. Her sentences are short and not overly complicated. I fell into the story very soon. Sometimes she takes the easy short cuts, when the story is told by giving short reports about events, before jumping into a scene again. But I recognize the difficulty of telling so much family history in a reasonable length of text.

Her characters are the novel’s strong point. Meilin’s love for her son and the things she is doing to ensure his survival are very moving. Later we see Renshu struggling with his own past and heritage in his relationship with his own daughter. Unable to openly speak about his own history, he forces his daughter to explore her heritage by herself.

“Peach Blossom Spring” is a great debut that deserves widespread attention from readers of all age groups.

A wonderful, lyrical novel which follows the trials of a young family born in China but harried by Japanese invasion of China and forced to flee to Taiwan. The traumatic journey is told with feeling, insight and real humanity. The language used, the pace of the story and the surroundings combine to create a really evocative picture of the time. The characters are very real, the fear palpable and the struggle truly believable.

It is a very long story and the pace drops a little once the principle character is settled in USA and this readers energy lagged at this point a little. Perhaps it could have been edited here but at the same time this pace change and what felt like a lull in he storyline actually is a key part of the story and reflects the character and reveals the true and lasting impact his traumatic childhood had on his life despite being 'free' in America.

Towards the end the pace builds again, particularly when his mother re-enters the story.

A real gem, well worth the investment in reading

We follow the journey of Three Generations of a Chinese family starting in 1938.
The Journey starts in China, then in Taiwan and eventually in America.
We learn about the horrors of war, loss, hunger, love and belonging.

⚠️ There is mention of sexual assault ⚠️

I felt every emotion reading this, the writing was so explicit that at times I felt I was part of the journey.

I love historical fiction can't seem to stay away from them recently! I finished this book in 3 days! What can I say I loved it. If you enjoyed Pachinko and The Mountains Sing then this will be your ideal read!

I don’t know much about Chinese history so I learned a lot from this book. The chapters are short and are like a series of photographs through time, taking you from China in the days after the revolution to America in the present day and tells the story of a family fleeing from danger to the safety of the United States. Although this was not my usual type of book, I enjoyed it.

Having recently read Pachinko and having loved it, I was so excited by this title to transport me back to Asia. This is a great saga that portrays generations of a family as they survive war, poverty and and passions. Beautifully written, it hooked me from the very start. Looking forward to more from this author!

I loved this book maybe because it presents the story of a family through three generations and the feelings and all the things they go trough. It's a sad story because it's about a mother who tries to protect her son in times of war, turmoil but it shows the determination and the resilience of a mother that would anything that's possible for her own child. It's a fiction story but I feel like I learned more about the Chinese people and what they had to go through when Japan invaded China in World War II and after the war when they had to rebuilt themselves.

Peach Blossom Spring, Melissa Fu

Review from Jeannie Zelos book reviews

Genre: General Fiction (Adult), Historical Fiction,

I love books about Eastern/Asian countries and their culture. I was so pleased to see this but I really struggled with it to begin and didn't really connect with the story until about quarter way in. Then as it settled in my head, when I began to feel I knew the characters, worried for them I really enjoyed it.
I loved Meilin's gentle nature, her stories, her fierce determination to do whats right for Renshu. They went through so much, and I enjoyed being along with them, even if it was hard reading at times. The scroll stories, the “is it a blessing or...” will stay with me, make me look closer at things I think. There were characters who seem harsh, but were looking out for their own families in a tough time. Who knows what we would do in the same position. I wanted to hug Meilin at times, tell her everything would be OK, but of course I didn't know if it would.
Renshu was such an amazing boy, so determined to make the best of every chance he was given. When he was in US, struggling, shy, confused the difference between him and all he;d been through and the blithe, carefree American students was so strong. I felt for him, especially the flashback incident. Rachel was wonderful, the perfect partner for him, and her parents, while appearing so prejudiced were just very typical of the time and opinions that prevailed then.
The ending is kind of bittersweet, great to see Henry and his family finally happy, but I was sad for Meilin, even though it was what she chose.

Stars: 4. I was hovering over a three, as that start was a real struggle, and I almost gave up but once into the story I was fully engrossed.

ARC supplied by Netgalley and publishers

Compelling and complex, I really enjoyed reading this book. It’s inter generational, the imagery is beautiful and the characters are well developed. I think anyone who is a second generation immigrant or of mixed race can relate to the themes and dialogue in this book, particularly about identity turmoil, international politics and what heritage means.

"Peach Blossom Spring" is a fantastic epic story of China and it's people, told through 3 generations of one family. The reader is taken through the upheavals of the war with Japan, WW2 and the civil war which lead to the migration and emigration of millions of ordinary people. The main characters are Meilin and her son Henry, a name he adopts when he gets a scholarship to an American university. Meilin is a truly brave and courageous woman who makes the best of everything life throws at her. So many different subjects are covered in a readable fashion which keeps the pages turning.

Thanks to Net Galley and the publishers for the opportunity to review this book.

This is a beautifully written life story set in China Taiwan and America ,it tells the story of difficult migratory life in China during and after the Second World War
I was not aware until the end of the book reading the authors comments that the book was based on true life .The author does not fall into the trap that some autobiographical novels have of trying to fit absolutely everything in .In this way the story flows naturally as a novel should and does not read like others do as a long sequence of events ..
I did not know much about Chinese history and the book allowed me to learn more
I was touched by the later chapters set in America particularly the main character’s reluctance to allow his daughter to know more about his heritage and the effect this clearly had on the author .The alienation within the family and between the family and other Chinese people in the local community was painful to read about
I enjoyed the way the author wove traditional Chinese tales into the book by having the mother telling stories from an antique scroll

I kept my expectations very low before starting this book because the blurb was giving "Pachinko" vibes. I was not disappointed, I can't say I enjoyed reading the novel because it's a sad story but I appreciated what the author did. I never about father-daughter relationships intimately in immigrant stories, and this was properly taken care of here. I enjoyed the pace, I couldn't bond with a lot of the characters, they felt a little 2D to me but it wasn't enough to take away from the book. It's plot-based so you'd you this story as well. Also, it's very insightful, the author obviously did a lot of research even though the subject matter is their personal experience.

A touching and amazing debut, I am still carrying all the characters with me.
I love historic fiction, I love family stories, and this one had all the hints to be a book I would really enjoy. And let me tell you, I was not disappointed.

We follow Meilin and her family's life, spanning through generations and continents. From the horrors of World War II, to the civil war to the communist revolution, a battle for survival that never stops, not even when Meilin's son Renshu flees to America to build a different future for himself.

We move from inland rural China to Taiwan to the US, we follow Meilin and Renshu in their struggles, all the lives they touch, the losses, the opportunities, the regrets and the dreams. We see Renshu leaving his heritage behind, we see him reinvent himself in a different country under the name Henry Dao, a name that western people should find easy to pronunce. We see the struggle for survival morphing into a struggle to fit in but also to remember, to merge those two parts of himself together. The past, his origins, the love for a land that was broken and wounded and sometimes evil, but still alive.

It was deep, evocative, at times crushing, so real. I really recommend it.

With grateful thanks to netgalley for an early copy in return for an honest opinion.
Quite a beautiful book not my normal reading but I really quite enjoyed this beautiful book.

Thanks to Headline and NetGalley for the Advance Review Copy in exchange for an honest review.

Full disclosure – I’m a sucker for intergenerational Chinese family dramas and this one is an absolute doozy. The book covers some of the most tumultuous periods in modern Chinese history spanning from the invasion of Japan through to the mid-2000s and follows the story of Meilin, her son Renshuu/Henry and their extended family members.

Obviously this is a time of huge upheaval in China and there is lots of time to cover in the space of one book. This is done successfully however, by grounding the story very much with the characters and their experiences of what happens around them, and is handled sensitively although it makes for difficult reading at times because you will really care about these characters.

One of the things that really struck me about this book was the huge sense of loss that the characters experience both in a tangible and emotional sense. As a reader I suppose it can be quite frustrating to not find out what happens to particular characters, in some cases characters that you have got very attached to, but I liked how the author was brave enough to make these writing decisions and it made it more credible to what would have been experienced in real life. In some sense it reminded me how I felt about Kainene’s disappearance in Half of a Yellow Sun. You know something bad has happened but like the characters in the book, you never find out exactly what.

As mother there were things that resonated with me personally in this story that I perhaps would not have felt if I had read it before I had children. The sacrifices that Meilin makes for Renshuu and the decisions she makes to ensure his safety and prosperity really struck a chord with me. There is also a real sense of intergenerational trauma and how this continues to impact on future generations, even those removed both physically and emotionally from the events that impacted on their wider family members. Despite some of the complicated emotions in this book I really felt like this is a story of hope, love an family and the different ways in which this love can be manifested and interpreted.

The sense of cultural estrangement experienced by both Renshuu/Henry and his daughter Lily was another aspect of the novel that I found interest. I know that I can’t claim to have been through anything similar to the horrors that the family in this book experience, but from my own mixed Italian/Greek background there is certainly a sense of the older generations wishing to leave difficult things in the past. My grandparents never wanted to talk about anything to do with the war or to share stories about that time. My own father never wanted to teach us Italian and my grandmother never wanted to teach us Greek. After leaving Greece during the war as a refugee and experiencing significant loss in her family during the war her situation was probably too difficult to think about and recall and I think lots of people from that that generation would feel the same and I think that was captured very effectively in this novel. The mixed race identity of Renshuu/Henry’s daughter was also explored really sensitively and the sense of disconnect from one half of her identity and the frustration of feeling she doesn’t quite fit in or belong anywhere is one that is likely to be familiar to many mixed race people.

I also thought it was interesting how the author portrayed Renshuu/Henry’s paranoia around the political attentions of his fellow Chinese immigrants who tried to connect with him once he had moved to the US. As a reader I thought it was interesting that we never really find out for sure whether or not his paranoia is in fact justified, or is it a result of Henry’s particular trauma. As with other events in the novel there is a question mark over what the reality of the situation really was – did those who asked him seemingly innocuous questions have ulterior motives or were they trying to make innocent conversation?

Considering the sheer scope of the time periods covered in this novel, it would have been difficult for certain parts not need to feel a bit rushed sometimes and that would be my only VERY mild niggle. For example, some parts of Lily’s story maybe felt a little rushed sometimes compared to some of the other character points of view.

Overall, this was a fantastic read and one I found both educational and emotionally compelling. I felt genuinely sad when it ended, and I felt like I was going to miss these characters. I really enjoyed the importance of stories in the book, both the stories from Meilin’s scroll and the individual lives of the main characters and how these played out. The book links into wider issues around cultural heritage, how one connects to that heritage and how they connect to the loss of that heritage either through the loss of family and culture.

P.S. If I could ask the author one question - Did Renshuu’s pear trees grow?!

Peach Blossom Spring - Melissa Fu
In a nutshell - beautiful, moving, quite exquisite writing.

Melissa Fu takes an intricate journey through a complex period of 20th century history, of China, Taiwan and the USA - and weaves a deeply engrossing, beautifully expressed and exquisitely written story of love, loss, loneliness, courage, endurance - a whole panoply of human qualities which transports the reader.
I couldn't put it down.

The re-telling of fables and moral stories, the vivid descriptions, the careful character development all carried me through a history I suspect many in the Western world have not fully understood nor even known.
The challenges of culture change both within and beyond China, the determination and resolve to adapt and move forward, and the power of love to overcome distance are sensitively explored and expressed.

The language is a joy; images of landscapes, townscapes, artifacts and daily rituals bring the stories to life in a way that transports the reader into these contrasting, evolving worlds, whilst also showing the developing characters with their strengths, hopes, fears and flaws and ultimate determination.

Highly recommended, for me, a masterpiece, from the evocative title to the superbly crafted passage through time and world-changing events.

Sweeping across several generations of one family, I was concerned that I wouldn’t build up any relationship with the characters and want to know what happened to them all. However, the characters were all very engaging and I found myself quickly captivated by the beautifully written characters.
Having lived for a year in China, I have always been drawn to books set there. The book was set during a part of its history that I knew little about. It has given me a greater understanding of the troubles of the time and has left me keen to find out more.
A beautifully written book full of depth and interest.