History and fiction meet in Daughters of the Sun and Moon by Lisa See in 1870 when the lives of three Chinese women of different backgrounds intersect in the rustic, violent Los Angeles pueblo.
Dove, the daughter of an Imperial Scholar, and Petal, from a poor farming family, are sent to California for very different reasons: Dove to be married to a merchant many years her senior; and Petal to work in a brothel. Moon, one of the fewer than three dozen women already in Los Angeles, is married to the well-liked doctor who practices traditional Chinese medicine.
All three have seemingly impossible dreams: Dove to be loved; Petal to know freedom; and Moon to have a child.
Each chapter primarily focus on one of the women, although there are references to all throughout the narrative. First person voice is used for Moon and Petal; including chapters in Moon’s voice looking back on the events from 1926. Chapters centered on Dove rely on an omniscient narrator.
Except for the few initial interactions among the women, kindness is a rarity since prejudice toward the Chinese in general, and women, in particular, is a major theme. Two kidnappings and tensions between two gangs reach a boiling point that soon involves Anglos and Mexicans pitted against the Asians.
See recounts, in horrific, vivid detail, the real-life events known as the Night of Horrors, when much of the Chinese population is brutally decimated. This is what ultimately brings the trio together in their quest for survival.
Daughters of the Sun and Moon
Four and a half bookmarks
Scribner, 2026
363 pages, includes a note on the history and acknowledgements
The Blue Page Special 