Ballerina Book Club discussion

Hi, Readers!

Our May pick for Ballerina Book Club is “Four Treasures of the Sky” by debut novelist Jenny Tinghui Zhang.

Set in the late 1800s amidst the Chinese Exclusion Act, the work of historical fiction centers on Daiyu, a young Chinese teenager named after a tragic character in the novel “Dream of the Red Chamber.” Early on in the book, Daiyu is kidnapped at a fish market in China and eventually taken to the United States, where she embarks on a journey of survival.

What publisher Flatiron Books says: “Daiyu never wanted to be like the tragic heroine for whom she was named, revered for her beauty and cursed with heartbreak. But when she is kidnapped and smuggled across an ocean from China to America, Daiyu must relinquish the home and future she imagined for herself. Over the years that follow, she is forced to keep reinventing herself to survive. From a calligraphy school, to a San Francisco brothel, to a shop tucked into the Idaho mountains, we follow Daiyu on a desperate quest to outrun the tragedy that chases her. As anti-Chinese sentiment sweeps across the country in a wave of unimaginable violence, Daiyu must draw on each of the selves she has been—including the ones she most wants to leave behind—in order to finally claim her own name and story.”

Let us know what you think in the discussion below!