What Amazon says: “The story of an unwanted Chinese daughter growing up during the Communist Revolution, blamed for her mother’s death, ignored by her millionaire father and unwanted by her Eurasian step mother. A story of greed, hatred and jealousy; a domestic dramais played against the extraordinary political events in China and Hong Kong. Written with the emotional force of a novel but with a vividness drawn from a personal and political background. FALLING LEAVES has become a surprise bestseller all over the world.”
What I thought: I devour books about China as I am fascinated by the country and its people. I read this one about 5 years ago and I started reading it fully expecting to be told the story of an unwanted child from a poor, probably rural, family and the hardships they all suffered. I couldn’t have been more wrong.
Adeline Yen Mah is brought up in a very wealthy, well respected family in both Shanghai and Taijin, further north. She lived in big houses with servants and a Father who was an extremely clever business man. Sounds ideal, but that couldnt be further from the reality. Adeline was the last born of 5 children and her Mother died 2 weeks after she was born. Adeline has still never seen a photo of her Mother to this day. Not long after her Mothers death, her Father remarried a half Chinese, half French young woman who was to become her step mother and this is where her nightmare stars. The 5 step children are kept in a different part of the house and treated like second class citizens in their own home. Adeline, who was blamed for the death of their mother, is also bullied and beaten by her own siblings who constanly gang up on her. Her Father and Niang, the step mother, make Adeline’s childhood a pure misery.
This story goes from Adeline’s childhood in China to her time as a student in England and then her move to America. All the while she puts up with the awful treatment dished up by her family as sne is so desperate for love and acceptance.
A very sad true story and one that needs to be told.
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