A bittersweet tale that fluctuates back and forth between 1921 and 1934. It follows an orphan Chinese boy, William, in Seattle who sees a beautiful Chinese woman, Willow Frost, in a film and is convinced she is his mother. We then backtrack and get Willow, aka Liu Song’s tragic early life before jumping forward to discover William’s escape from the orphanage with a young blind girl and their pursuit of Willow. The whole thing is utterly charming with a fascinating backdrop of the Chinese attempting to blend into American life and wonderful historical detail of the Depression. A very fine book indeed and an excellent follow up to Hotel on the Corner of Bitter and Sweet.
Set against the backdrop of Depression-era Seattle, 12-year-old William Eng, a Chinese-American boy, has lived at Seattle's Sacred Heart Orphanage ever since his mother's listless body was carried away from their small apartment five years ago. On his birthday William and the other orphans are taken to the theatre, where William glimpses an actress on the silver screen who goes by the name of Willow Frost. Struck by her features, William is convinced that the movie star is his mother, Liu Song. Determined to find Willow, and prove his mother is still alive, William escapes from Sacred Heart with his friend Charlotte. The pair navigates the streets of Seattle, where they must not only survive, but confront the mysteries of William's past and his connection to the exotic film star. The story of Willow Frost, however, is far more complicated than the Hollywood fantasy William sees onscreen.
'Mesmerising and evocative' Sara Gruen, bestselling author of Water for Elephants
'Very special' The Bookseller
'Entertaining and often illuminating' The Spectator
'Poignant, deeply moving' We Love This Book
'Awesomely good!' Books Monthly
'Recommended for all fiction collections' Library Journal
Author
About Jamie Ford
Jamie Ford is the great-grandson of Nevada mining pioneer Min Chung, who emigrated in 1865 from Kaiping, China, to San Francisco, where he adopted the Western name, “Ford.” Ford studied as an illustrator and found professional success as an art director and copywriter before turning his attention to fiction. An award-winning short story writer, his debut novel was inspired by the “I Am Chinese” button his father mentioned wearing as a child after the bombing of Pearl Harbour. Ford wrote a short story about the button, which later became a chapter in the book. Now a New York Times bestseller, Hotel on the Corner of Bitter and Sweet has been awarded the 2010 Asian/Pacific American Award for Literature and translated into thirty languages. Ford grew up near Seattle’s Chinatown, but now lives in Montana with his wife and children.
