The Hundred Secret Senses
Books | Fiction / Literary
4.1
(302)
Amy Tan
The "wisest and most captivating novel" (Boston Globe) from the author of the bestselling The Joy Luck Club and The Backyard Bird Chronicles Set in San Francisco and in a remote village of Southwestern China, Amy Tan's The Hundred Secret Senses is a tale of American assumptions shaken by Chinese ghosts and broadened with hope. In 1962, five-year-old Olivia meets the half-sister she never knew existed, eighteen-year-old Kwan from China, who sees ghosts with her "yin eyes." Decades later, Olivia describes her complicated relationship with her sister and her failing marriage, as Kwan reveals her story, sweeping the reader into the splendor and violence of mid-nineteenth century China. With her characteristic wisdom, grace, and humor, Tan conjures up a story of the inheritance of love, its secrets and senses, its illusions and truths.
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More Details:
Author
Amy Tan
Pages
368
Publisher
Penguin
Published Date
1995-10-17
ISBN
1101202947 9781101202944
Ratings
Google: 5
Community ReviewsSee all
"Listened to the audiobook on and off. I liked how the author herself read this book so there’s no misinterpretation of how the book is to be read, the tone, the characters, and the story is given.<br/>Amy’s storytelling is captivating and I probably would get more out of it if I visually read it because there were some parts I didn’t understand how it transitioned.<br/>I love Kwan and her quirkiness, she’s not afraid to say anything, especially to Olivia. It’s sad it took Olivia a while to truly know that Kwan wasn’t just telling stories about her childhood although I would have been concerned about Kwan having “yin” eyes to be able to see and communicate with the dead.<br/>And then told that potentially she and her sister were reincarnated from previous people?? Yeah, I still don’t think I completely buy it either like Olivia didn’t but I’m open to seeing that possibility just like Olivia did near the end of her trip when visiting Kwan’s village with her husband and Kwan for the funeral of Kwan’s “auntie”.<br/><br/>"
L H
"I liked this book but didn’t love it. I was expecting literary fiction, but got magical realism. I think if I would have known more about it going in, I’d have enjoyed it more."
Emily Calleja
"Two half-sisters at the cross-roads of Chinese and American cultures...one steeped in 1000 years of tradition and another finding her way in a modern world."
Shannon McManus
