"Peach Blossom Spring" by Melissa Fu

 

Peach Blossom Spring by Melissa Fu

400 pp

Peach Blossom Spring covers the years 1938-2005 in the lives of a family.  The story starts in China during the war with Japan (the early days of WWII) and follows his wife and son as they travel through China to meet his brother to find safety from the Japanese bombers.  Meilin (the wife) has a valuable scroll that her husband took in trade so that she and he could have their own business someday.  She uses this scroll to tell her son stories through much of the book.  Meilin and her brother-in-law and his family come together for some time, but when one of the nieces dies, Meilin is blamed and she decides to sever ties.  They make their way to other parts of China eventually coming to settle in Taiwan.  Her son goes to school and is a good student.  He goes through high school and college in Taiwan, but gets the opportunity to go to the US for his master's degree.  Meilin sees her brother-in-law while she is working at a party and gets him to help her son qualify to go to the US.  The story then mainly follows the son who takes the Americanized name Henry when he goes to the US.  Henry eventually marries an American woman and they have a child named Lily.  The story they follows Lily after she goes to college, but has brief interludes with Henry and Meilin.

This was an excellent story.  I particularly liked the stories from the scroll that were native to China. There is also a part set in St. Louis since the woman the son marries family is from here. The author is a woman with a background from China and the US Southwest, but who lives in Great Britain now.  Were I to give it stars, it would definitely make four our of five for me.