The Valley of Amazement

Blending research with fiction, Amy Tan's new novel The Valley of Amazement offers an imaginative and melodramatic account of women in a conformist society who liberate themselves from fettering circumstances and social beliefs, and how they may emerge damaged but not crushed. Inspired by a rediscovered photograph of her grandmother dressed in the traditional costume of a Chinese courtesan, the book represents a reimagined account of her grandmother's life, whom Tan thought might have been a concubine in her first marriage.