Four Treasures of the Sky

Zhifu, China, 1882.

Daiyu never wanted to be like the tragic heroine for whom she was named, revered for her beauty and cursed with heartbreak. But when she is kidnapped and smuggled across an ocean from China to America, Daiyu must relinquish the home and future she once imagined.

Over the years that follow she is forced to reinvent herself to survive. From a calligraphy school, to a San Francisco brothel, to a shop tucked into the Idaho mountains, we follow Daiyu on a desperate quest to outrun the tragedy that chases her. As anti-Chinese sentiment sweeps across the American West in a wave of unimaginable violence, Daiyu must draw on each of the selves she has been — including the ones she most wants to leave behind - in order to finally claim her own name and story.

'An engulfing, bighearted and heartbreaking debut. Illuminates shocking injustices, making us stop and consider how many survive to this day' — Ann Patchett