The Valley of Amazement

The Valley of Amazement
Amy Tan

Shanghai, 1905. Violet Minturn is the young daughter of the American mistress of the city’s most exclusive courtesan house. But when revolution arrives in the city, she is separated from her mother in a cruel act of chicanery and forced to become a ‘virgin courtesan’.Half-Chinese and half-American, Violet moves effortlessly between the cultural worlds of East and West, quickly becoming a shrewd businesswoman who deals in seduction and illusion. But her successes belie her private struggle to understand who she really is and her search for a home in the world.Lucia, Violet’s mother, nurses wounds of her own, first sustained when, as a teenager, she fell blindly in love with a Chinese painter and followed him from San Francisco to Shanghai, only to be confronted with the shocking reality of the vast cultural differences between them. Violet’s need for answers will propel both her and her mother on separate quests of discovery: journeys to make sense of their lives, of the men – fathers, lovers, sons – who have shaped them, and of the ways we fail one another and our children despite our best attempts to love and be loved.Spanning fifty years and two continents, ‘The Valley of Amazement’ resurrects lost worlds: from the moment when China’s imperial dynasty collapsed, a Republic arose, and foreign trade became the lifeblood of Shanghai, to the inner workings of courtesan houses and the lives of the foreign ‘Shanghailanders’ living in the International Settlement, both erased by World War II. It is also a deeply evocative narrative of family secrets, the legacy of trauma, and the profound connections between mothers and daughters, which returns readers to the compelling territory so expertly mapped in ‘The Joy Luck Club’.With her characteristic wisdom, grace and humour, Amy Tan conjures a story of the inheritance of love, its mysteries and betrayals, and its illusions and truths.

COPYRIGHT (#ulink_46565e41-3ffc-5422-a70c-77d917a9a3d0)

Fourth Estate

An imprint of HarperCollinsPublishers

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London W6 8JB

www.4thestate.co.uk (http://www.4thestate.co.uk)

First published in Great Britain by Fourth Estate in 2013

First published in the United States by Ecco in 2013

Copyright © Amy Tan 2013

Cover photograph © ZenShui/James Hardy

Amy Tan asserts the moral right to be identified as the author of this work.

A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library.

This novel is entirely a work of fiction. The names, characters and incidents portrayed in it are the work of the author’s imagination. Any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, events or localities is entirely coincidental.

All rights reserved under International and Pan-American Copyright Conventions. By payment of the required fees, you have been granted the non-exclusive, non-transferable right to access and read the text of this e-book on screen. No part of this text may be reproduced, transmitted, down-loaded, decompiled, reverse engineered, or stored in or introduced into any information storage and retrieval system, in any form or by any means, whether electronic or mechanical, now known or hereinafter invented, without the express written permission of HarperCollins.

Ebook Edition © November 2013 ISBN: 9780007467242

Version: 2014-07-15

DEDICATION (#ulink_44ccc6bd-8f1b-582b-9e06-c461d0ee3525)

FOR

KATHI KAMEN GOLDMARK AND ZHENG CAO

KINDRED SPIRITS

EPIGRAPH (#ulink_9a57b458-8713-54e0-8a3d-569db8e3ae67)

Quicksand years that whirl me I know not whither,

Your schemes, politics, fail, lines give way, substances mock and

elude me,

Only the theme I sing, the great and strong-possess’d soul, eludes

not,

One’s-self, must never give way—that is the final substance—

that out of all is sure,

Out of politics, triumphs, battles, life, what at last finally remains?

When shows break up what but One’s-Self is sure?

—WALT WHITMAN, “QUICKSAND YEARS”

CONTENTS

Copyright (#ulink_a98ce1ab-7129-517b-b66a-fc9580854c27)

Dedication (#ulink_6712c359-7458-57f4-93e4-243a8abff6ed)

Epigraph (#ulink_b603acd0-d36e-5a7c-b3a4-a197dabd59ae)

Chapter 1: Hidden Jade Path (#ulink_e9cc7453-086c-57c4-8057-83c694f2483d)

Chapter 2: The New Republic (#ulink_6256ad05-b47e-525d-9701-1b388c791bf6)

Chapter 3: The Hall of Tranquility (#ulink_2f7784cc-996d-52ac-a5c1-730e9726a0ff)

Chapter 4: Etiquette for Beauties of the Boudoir (#ulink_e46035ab-7ab7-50b0-a3d8-75c45acd1fa1)

Chapter 5: The Memory of Desire (#litres_trial_promo)

Chapter 6: A Singing Sparrow (#litres_trial_promo)

Chapter 7: A Blue Disease (#litres_trial_promo)

Chapter 8: The Two Mrs. Ivorys (#litres_trial_promo)

Chapter 9: Quicksand Years (#litres_trial_promo)

Chapter 10: Moon Pond Village (#litres_trial_promo)

Chapter 11: Heaven Mountain (#litres_trial_promo)

Chapter 12: The Valley of Amazement (#litres_trial_promo)

Chapter 13: Fata Morgana (#litres_trial_promo)