Buy new:
-45% $14.78$14.78
FREE delivery March 6 - 8
Ships from: YourOnlineBookstore Sold by: YourOnlineBookstore
Save with Used - Good
$7.15$7.15
Ships from: Amazon Sold by: Solmaz Trade

Download the free Kindle app and start reading Kindle books instantly on your smartphone, tablet, or computer - no Kindle device required.
Read instantly on your browser with Kindle for Web.
Using your mobile phone camera - scan the code below and download the Kindle app.
A River of Stars: A Novel Hardcover – August 14, 2018
Purchase options and add-ons
“Utterly absorbing.”—Celeste Ng • “A marvel of a first novel.”—O: The Oprah Magazine • “The most eye-opening literary adventure of the year.”—Entertainment Weekly
NAMED ONE OF THE BEST BOOKS OF THE YEAR BY The Washington Post • NPR • Real Simple
Holed up with other mothers-to-be in a secret maternity home in Los Angeles, Scarlett Chen is far from her native China, where she worked in a factory and fell in love with the married owner, Boss Yeung. Now she’s carrying his baby. To ensure that his child—his first son—has every advantage, Boss Yeung has shipped Scarlett off to give birth on American soil. As Scarlett awaits the baby’s arrival, she spars with her imperious housemates. The only one who fits in even less is Daisy, a spirited, pregnant teenager who is being kept apart from her American boyfriend.
Then a new sonogram of Scarlett’s baby reveals the unexpected. Panicked, she goes on the run by hijacking a van—only to discover that she has a stowaway: Daisy, who intends to track down the father of her child. The two flee to San Francisco’s bustling Chinatown, where Scarlett will join countless immigrants desperately trying to seize their piece of the American dream. What Scarlett doesn’t know is that her baby’s father is not far behind her.
A River of Stars is a vivid examination of home and belonging and a moving portrayal of a woman determined to build her own future.
Praise for A River of Stars
“Vanessa Hua’s story spins with wild fervor, with charming protagonists fiercely motivated by maternal and survival instincts.”—USA Today
“A River of Stars is the best of all worlds: part buddy cop adventure, part coming-of-age story and part ode to female friendship.”—NPR
“Hua’s epic A River of Stars follows a pair of pregnant Chinese immigrant women—two of the more vibrant characters I’ve come across in a while—on the lam from Los Angeles to San Francisco’s Chinatown.”—R. O. Kwon, author of The Incendiaries, in Esquire
“A delightful novel of motherhood and Chinese immigration . . . Without wading into policy debates, Ms Hua dramatises the stories and contributions of immigrants who believe in grand ideals and strive to live up to them.”—The Economist
- Print length304 pages
- LanguageEnglish
- PublisherBallantine Books
- Publication dateAugust 14, 2018
- Dimensions6.37 x 1.04 x 9.56 inches
- ISBN-100399178783
- ISBN-13978-0399178788
Book recommendations, author interviews, editors' picks, and more. Read it now.
Customers who viewed this item also viewed
- If you only looked out for cheats and con artists, you only found cheats and con artists. You became one yourself.Highlighted by 70 Kindle readers
- Only someone with the privileges of an American would so readily try to give up those privileges.Highlighted by 67 Kindle readers
- The land of your birth shaped you, even if later, like Scarlett, you led your life in opposition to it.Highlighted by 61 Kindle readers
Editorial Reviews
Review
“[A] powerful debut.”—Entertainment Weekly
“Vanessa Hua’s story spins with wild fervor, with charming protagonists fiercely motivated by maternal and survival instincts. A River of Stars is a migrant narrative tenderly constructed around Scarlett’s quest to carve a life for her daughter and herself at the risk of deportation.”—USA Today
“Vanessa Hua’s epic A River of Stars follows a pair of pregnant Chinese immigrant women—two of the more vibrant characters I’ve come across in a while—on the lam from Los Angeles to San Francisco’s Chinatown.”—R. O. Kwon, author of The Incendiaries, in Esquire
“A delightful novel of motherhood and Chinese immigration . . . Hua is a breezy, unfussy storyteller and an astute observer. . . . Without wading into policy debates, Ms Hua dramatises the stories and contributions of immigrants who believe in grand ideals and strive to live up to them.”—The Economist
“The most eye-opening literary adventure of the year . . . a spellbinding immersion into one woman’s search for the American Dream.”—Entertainment Weekly
“Vanessa Hua’s page-turner is a powerful look at immigration and identity.”—Us Weekly (“Summer’s Best Send-Offs”)
“Hua’s first novel bristles with timely detail and unexpected pivots, as two desperate women find family and community to support their struggle for freedom.”—BBC (“The 10 Smartest Beach Reads of 2018”)
“A vibrant, fascinating look into womanhood and how so many women’s lives are shaped by their relationship to the powerful men within them . . . Hua infuses this story with spirit and humor, exploring the ways in which pregnancy and motherhood can be both liberating and entrapping for the women who endure them. It’s a remarkable novel, one which makes clear the many ways in which women must struggle to make their lives their own.”—Nylon
“[A] stellar debut novel.”—Bustle
“A twenty-first-century immigrant story about the terror, drama, and desperation of being undocumented and yet unable to leave.”—The Village Voice
“Vanessa Hua illuminates the lives of her characters with energy, verve, and heart. Hua tracks the minutest emotional terrain of these characters while simultaneously interrogating the cultural and economic forces that shape their worlds. This book holds your attention until the very last page.”—Emma Cline, New York Times bestselling author of The Girls
“A River of Stars is a page-turner, a riveting story of parenthood, migration, and the choices we make to survive. Fierce and determined, resourceful and resilient, Scarlett Chen is an unforgettable protagonist you can’t help but root for.”—Lisa Ko, author of the National Book Award finalist The Leavers
“Vanessa Hua’s compelling A River of Stars is a story of resistance, survival, and self-determination in a world that is seemingly indifferent to the needs of the poor and disenfranchised.”—Min Jin Lee, author of the National Book Award finalist Pachinko
About the Author
Excerpt. © Reprinted by permission. All rights reserved.
When Boss Yeung first told her about Perfume Bay, she’d tossed the brochure onto the dashboard and reached for a slice of dried mango. Shaking his head, he took the bag, but before he could stop her, she snatched a slice of chewy sweetness. During her pregnancy, he’d begun scrutinizing her, prescribing advice—some backed by science but most by superstition—to protect the baby. She shouldn’t eat mangoes, as their heat would give the baby bad skin; no watermelon, whose chill would cool her womb; no bananas, which would cause the baby to slip out early. No water chestnuts, mung beans, or bean sprouts, either. The list of traditional prohibitions grew each time she attempted to eat.
As he drifted into the next lane, she told him to keep his eyes on the road. He gripped the steering wheel and told her his plan: he wanted to send her and their unborn child halfway around the world to Perfume Bay, five-star accommodations located outside of Los Angeles. After she delivered, staff would file for a Social Security card, birth certificate, and passport for the baby. Their son—his sex recently confirmed—would give them a foothold in America.
“Eventually he could sponsor our green cards,” Scarlett had responded. “For now, you’ll get rid of me. Clever plan, Boss Yeung.”
At the factory, she called him Boss Yeung, and she kept it up in private, too, a reminder that she was a deputy manager, and not a xiaojie—a mistress, a gold digger from a disco or a hostess bar. They passed factories covered in grimy white tile, built on land that had been fields when she arrived here as a teenager. People from around the country had moved to the Pearl River Delta, just across the border from Hong Kong, to make their fortunes, and the factory girl you snubbed might someday become your manager.
Boss Yeung reached into the glove box for a brand-new U.S. atlas that he must have hand-carried from Hong Kong. Hope unfurled in her chest. She always navigated on their weekend drives, and with this gift, she pictured them traveling across America together.
“Whatever hospital you’d deliver in would be top-class,” he said.
“The hospitals are good in Hong Kong, too,” she said. Unlike in China, the government wouldn’t hassle her there for being an unwed mother, wouldn’t fine her or force her to terminate her pregnancy. Women there could have as many children as they wanted.
Boss Yeung frowned. Hong Kong was also home to his wife and three daughters.
“It doesn’t matter how good the hospitals are in America, if I end up in jail,” she said.
She had conceived even though Boss Yeung had pulled out, evidently not soon enough. For once, the method had failed them. Her periods had never been regular, and she’d been into her second trimester before realizing her nausea wasn’t the stomach flu and her heartburn wasn’t from the stress of trying to meet production goals.
On the radio, a newscaster announced that the U.S. embassy was evacuating American tourists from Egypt. Boss Yeung stabbed his finger at the radio dial. “The U.S. would save our son.”
“From Egypt? Why would I—why would he go to Egypt?”
“From anywhere. The U.S. would get him out of trouble anywhere.”
That was when Scarlett had realized just how much his son meant to Boss Yeung, reviving the dream that had died with the birth of his daughters: an heir to carry on his legacy. He had never shared this dream with her, for a boy in his image, a prince of the family. He was almost sixty, she was thirty-six. If Scarlett carried a girl, would Boss Yeung have sent her to Perfume Bay? No. He’d waited to book her stay until he knew she was having a boy, but objecting to such a preference would have been like objecting to gravity.
He sped up, picking off tractor trailers and buses, which still gave her a thrill. Faster and faster they went, getting so far ahead it seemed they might have the road’s end to themselves. With him behind the wheel, she might go anywhere. He put his hand on top of hers, lacing their fingers together, and she tucked her head against his shoulder. She never felt more complete than when nestled against him. If she didn’t have this baby, she might never have one, not with Boss Yeung or with anyone else.
On her own, Scarlett could have expected deference and attention. One pregnant woman gets a seat on the bus, the front of the line at the bathroom, and good wishes from strangers who pat your bump, ask how far along you are, and guess if you are carrying a boy or a girl. At the sight of a fertile belly, the most hardened can’t help but hope for the future, can’t help but long for their past.
A dozen pregnant women are a different matter.
You quarrel over who gets the most comfortable seat at dinner, who eats the last of the tofu stew, and whose aches are the most deserving of sympathy.
Deep into her eighth month of pregnancy, she had thought the other guests at Perfume Bay would lose interest, but they wouldn’t stop picking on her. Now she found herself squeezed into the corner of the couch by an equally round Lady Yu. Their feud had started over Scarlett’s accommodations at Perfume Bay, where she had the most luxurious quarters. Lady Yu had demanded the room, which had a view of the foothills, a massage chair, and a marble Jacuzzi, but apparently, Boss Yeung had more guanxi here.
On television, the Hollywood sign appeared, iconic letters that stood a few kilometers away yet seemed distant as the moon. After Scarlett turned up the volume, Lady Yu grabbed the remote and switched the channel.
Because Scarlett never bragged about Boss Yeung’s position, because she never mentioned him at all, the other guests found her suspect. She was a threat, not because she’d go after their husbands, but because she represented any woman, every woman who could. It didn’t matter that her lover was a stranger to them. Mistresses weren’t supposed to have children who competed with theirs.
Lady Yu had made clear that she considered Scarlett and the baby she carried lowly as turtle’s eggs. Nothing was more despicable than a turtle—dragging itself through the muck—except its spawn. A nurse arrived to drop prenatal vitamins into their mouths, their faces upturned to her like chicks getting fed. The pill tasted of iron and rotting leaves. Scarlett swallowed and gagged, felt the pill coming back up but chased it down with a few sips of lukewarm water. Her insides would roil all morning.
She had arrived a few weeks ago, and at any given time at Perfume Bay—three white stucco townhomes converted into a compound by ripping out the adjoining walls—about a dozen guests from China and Hong Kong were pregnant, and another half-dozen or so were recovering. The babies slept in a former dining room where a crystal chandelier hung over the bassinets. Cartons of diapers, crates of formula, and sacks of wipes jammed the garages, and closets had been remodeled into bathrooms.
Lady Yu led the Shanghai clique of spoiled wives, who were perhaps only a generation or two removed from the countryside. In Scarlett, they despised who they might have been.
Scarlett changed the channel back.
“Mei you wenhua,” Lady Yu shouted. “Nong min.” Low-class! A peasant! She hurled a magazine at Scarlett, missing wildly and hitting the television.
“Tuhao,” Scarlett said. An insult for the newly rich, with more money than manners.
Stung by the insult, Lady Yu heaved herself up and slapped Scarlett.
Scarlett rocked back in disbelief, putting up her hands to protect her belly. Her mother used to slap her, but no one else, not in decades. Lady Yu smiled smugly, the sort who beat her servants. Scarlett grabbed a pillow and smacked it against Lady Yu’s head. When Lady Yu clawed at her, Scarlett grabbed her wrists and forced her arms down, twisting almost hard enough to sprain. Their screams set off one baby, then all ten babies in the nursery next door, howls that picked up with the speed and power of a tsunami.
The owner, Mama Fang, rushed in, trailed by nurses, to separate the mothers-to-be, clucking that they shouldn’t exert themselves, they should consider their babies, and sent them to their rooms. At Perfume Bay, the mothers were treated like children, so that their children would obtain the most precious gift of all: American citizenship.
After Scarlett left China, she and Boss Yeung had grown apart, talking only every few days on video calls. Without proximity, without work in common, they discussed nothing but her pregnancy, and how irresponsible she was. Tonight, his bullfrog voice rumbled over the crackly Internet connection. “Have you eaten?” he asked. He sat in his office, his own lunch, a chipped plastic bowl of rice and soup from the factory cafeteria, untouched on his desk.
She hesitated. If she told him she fell asleep and missed dinner, he would chide her for denying their son nutrition. Sequestered at Perfume Bay, she’d become a modern-day concubine, her existence reduced to a single purpose: to produce the heir.
If she couldn’t please him while pregnant, she never would as a mother. She’d lose any chance of a future together. Mama Fang had promised not to tell him about the catfight in her daily report, but would expect a favor in return. Boss Yeung adjusted the webcam. Scarlett turned her head to hide the bruise blooming on her cheek. She had been drawn to his intensity, that seriousness of purpose. He could be decisive to the point of brusqueness, a trait she had recognized in herself and had admired in him until he started turning on her.
On the video call, his handsome face pixelated, breaking up, as though in a time-lapse film of decay. He was insisting on the name Yaoxi for their son, which meant “to shine on the West.”
“I’ll call him what I want,” Scarlett said. The baby’s birthplace shouldn’t define him. She wanted him free to go anywhere, to be anyone, and hadn’t yet picked a name. Settling on one would define a life that still felt limitless.
He thumped the desk, and the chopsticks clattered off the bowl. The screen locked up, freezing his expression into a snarl. Scarlett steeled herself. During her pregnancy, he had grown accustomed to giving her orders, and he wouldn’t stop after she delivered, not unless she stood up to him now.
When the video transmission resumed, Boss Yeung stared at Scarlett, and she quickly brought up her hand to cover the swelling and the inky bruise.
“What happened?” he asked. “To your face.”
“Nothing.” She dropped her hand, her cheeks hot. “The connection’s bad.”
“You fell.”
She nodded. Better if he believed her clumsy rather than violent.
“Selfish,” he said. She understood. If she’d been more careful, if she’d been thinking about their son, she wouldn’t have fallen. “I won’t let you ruin him.” With a hiss of disgust, he logged off.
He wasn’t the usual factory boss, paunchy and red-faced from too much drink, sunburned from golf, with a clutch of fawning concubines, one for every night of the week. With high cheekbones and deep-set, watchful eyes, he had the look of a Mongolian warlord. Scarlett curled onto her side, pinned down by her belly, feeling as though she might never rise again. She’d pictured herself someday with a settled life, with a husband—someone solid as Boss Yeung, if not him exactly—a home, and a family. Now someday had arrived with nothing except the baby.
The pregnancy had come between them. She buried her face into the pillow. She couldn’t escape Perfume Bay’s bitter scent of herbs, which reminded her of her mother’s foul medicinal brews. A lifetime ago, she’d stopped relying on Ma, and yet now she wanted her mother’s fingers cool against her cheek, applying a poultice that would harden against her skin, crack off, and relieve the pain.
Something scratched the walls of Perfume Bay, branches in the wind or a burrowing rodent that would gnaw at Scarlett in the dark. She had been dreaming of spies peering into her window, of cameras hidden in the overhead light, of an eye in the sky. After a hard kick from her xiao dou, her little bean, Scarlett gasped. Did Little Bean dream of what lay beyond the murk? More kicks pummeled her from the inside, and she pressed her hand against an unyielding elbow or knee. Back and forth they pushed until the baby squirmed away, and they both drifted off to sleep.
The next morning, the nurses passed around the newborns just back from the hospital. For Scarlett, Perfume Bay had been a crash course in motherhood. She’d learned that while each newborn was much like the others, with a scrunched monkey face and oversized, lolling head topped by an identical blue-and-red striped knit hat, each little roly-poly body wrapped in an identical blue-and-red striped receiving blanket, she was still expected to exclaim superlatives for each one.
The other guests gasped at the bruise on her cheek, which looked even worse today, and Countess Tien fussed over Lady Yu. Although Scarlett tried to appear unbowed and unapologetic, she seethed at herself for losing her temper. Diu lian, loss of face, shameful to fight with Lady Yu.
Scarlett didn’t say the courtly titles she’d given the other ladies out loud, but she could think of them no other way. Her secret taunt, for how they carried themselves like descendants of the royal line. With her bejeweled hands, Lady Yu cradled Countess Tien’s baby. Her pinched features softened as she touched his nose. “What a noisy thing!” she said, careful not to attract the attention of jealous spirits with praise. She could soothe the fussiest infant, while Scarlett’s own lack of interest in children seemed a personal failing.
Product details
- Publisher : Ballantine Books; First Edition (August 14, 2018)
- Language : English
- Hardcover : 304 pages
- ISBN-10 : 0399178783
- ISBN-13 : 978-0399178788
- Item Weight : 1.15 pounds
- Dimensions : 6.37 x 1.04 x 9.56 inches
- Best Sellers Rank: #1,570,615 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
- #1,893 in Asian American Literature & Fiction
- #68,804 in Literary Fiction (Books)
- #78,098 in Women's Literature & Fiction
- Customer Reviews:
About the author

Vanessa Hua, is author of DECEIT AND OTHER POSSIBILITIES, a NYT Editors pick, and the national bestsellers A RIVER OF STARS and FORBIDDEN CITY. A National Endowment for the Arts Literature Fellow, she has also received an Asian/Pacific American Award for Literature, a Rona Jaffe Foundation Writers' Award, and a Steinbeck Fellowship in Creative Writing. Her work has appeared in New York Times, The Atlantic, ZYZZYVA, Guernica, and elsewhere. She lives in the San Francisco Bay Area with her husband and twins. She teaches at the Warren Wilson MFA Program for Writers, Sewanee Writers Conference, and elsewhere.
Customer reviews
Customer Reviews, including Product Star Ratings help customers to learn more about the product and decide whether it is the right product for them.
To calculate the overall star rating and percentage breakdown by star, we don’t use a simple average. Instead, our system considers things like how recent a review is and if the reviewer bought the item on Amazon. It also analyzed reviews to verify trustworthiness.
Learn more how customers reviews work on AmazonCustomers say
Customers find the story compelling, entertaining, and memorable. They describe it as an engrossing read with insightful cultural details and unique characters. The writing quality is described as wonderful and easy to understand. Readers appreciate the vivid storytelling and evocative setting. While some parts are humorous and poignant, others are heartbreaking and funny.
AI-generated from the text of customer reviews
Customers find the story engaging and memorable. They praise the well-written, entertaining tale with unique characters. The book is described as captivating and heartwarming. Readers appreciate the sparkling prose and well-paced storytelling. They find the plot unexpected with an interesting situation that demonstrates the inequity between poor and rich.
"...and politically relevant, but it is poetically crafted and captivating to the last page. I highly recommend it." Read more
"...The characters were good and well developed. The story moved along and had some surprising twists. It was well written, and an easy read...." Read more
"A poignant story of a poor young Chinese girl who gets involved with her factory boss, becomes pregnant & is sent to American to have the child born..." Read more
"...We’ll-written and compelling story about two very different women who become family as they shelter and nurture their newborns...." Read more
Customers enjoy the book's readability. They find it an engaging and well-written literary novel about family complexities. The characters are well-developed and the audiobook edition is great.
"I absolutely loved this novel, and it is staying with me weeks after finishing it...." Read more
"...The characters were good and well developed. The story moved along and had some surprising twists. It was well written, and an easy read...." Read more
"...Very good read." Read more
"...sometimes laugh-out-loud funny addition to the list of other excellent literary novels about the complexities of family and gender relationships in..." Read more
Customers find the book insightful and fascinating. They appreciate its premise, details about Chinese culture, and timely topics. The book provides an introduction to facts that have been in the news recently. Readers enjoy the rich world filled with stories, culture, history, and a modern love story.
"...This story is not only socially and politically relevant, but it is poetically crafted and captivating to the last page. I highly recommend it." Read more
"...elements of class, rural v urban upbringings and assimilation to American Chinese life...." Read more
"...The women are strong and intelligent and have to surmount overwhelming circumstances to survive and keep their children with them. Very good read." Read more
"Scarlett is strong and resourceful. She manages, through her own grit and imagination, to make a life for herself...." Read more
Customers find the characters compelling and memorable.
"...The characters were good and well developed. The story moved along and had some surprising twists. It was well written, and an easy read...." Read more
"Vanessa Hua creates intriguing characters and spins a tale of love, motherhood, and survival...." Read more
"...This is a story of part of them. I liked the characters and the plot. Compelling and engrossing read...." Read more
"...created a very interesting and unexpected plot, while bringing all of the characters to life. A fun read - I thoroughly enjoyed the book." Read more
Customers find the book well-written with sparkling prose and a compelling story. They describe it as an easy read with smooth storytelling that keeps them hooked until the end.
"...story is not only socially and politically relevant, but it is poetically crafted and captivating to the last page. I highly recommend it." Read more
"...The story moved along and had some surprising twists. It was well written, and an easy read...." Read more
"This story took me into a culture that I knew very little about. We’ll-written and compelling story about two very different women who become family..." Read more
"Hua’s touching and beautifully written novel relates the story of Scarlett and Daisy, modern day immigrants to the US, and their struggles and..." Read more
Customers enjoy the book's pacing. They find it vivid, beautiful, and compelling. The characters give an intimate glimpse into what it's like to be human. Readers appreciate the setting, tension, and mystery. Overall, they describe the story as riveting and eye-opening.
"...Vanessa Hua's characters give an intimate glance into what it's like to be pregnant, to give birth, to love, to grow old, and most importantly, to..." Read more
"...A River of Stars is a vivid, sometimes heartbreaking and sometimes laugh-out-loud funny addition to the list of other excellent literary novels..." Read more
"...A lack of trust, though well-founded, is limiting. I enjoyed the setting, the tension, the mystery...." Read more
"...Instead, it was just as bland as the slow progression and roundabout character narratives that never progressed or excited...." Read more
Customers find the book heartbreaking and funny. They describe it as a poignant story with riveting characters.
"...A River of Stars is a vivid, sometimes heartbreaking and sometimes laugh-out-loud funny addition to the list of other excellent literary novels..." Read more
"...This story had the potential to be heart-wrenching, and at times it was. But the deep level of engagement was uneven...." Read more
"Funny, sad, poignant, riveting, story and characters, Hua has a gift with capturing what makes us human...." Read more
"A profound and memorable novel with unique, compelling characters..." Read more
Reviews with images

A Highly Pleasurable Read!
Top reviews from the United States
There was a problem filtering reviews right now. Please try again later.
- Reviewed in the United States on June 25, 2019I absolutely loved this novel, and it is staying with me weeks after finishing it. Vanessa Hua's characters give an intimate glance into what it's like to be pregnant, to give birth, to love, to grow old, and most importantly, to be a Chinese woman fleeing a regime of forced abortions and sterilization to seek a safe and fruitful life in America. This story is not only socially and politically relevant, but it is poetically crafted and captivating to the last page. I highly recommend it.
- Reviewed in the United States on October 17, 2018I wasn't expecting to like this as much as I did. I'm not sure it deserved 4 stars, but I thought it deserved more than 3. The characters were good and well developed. The story moved along and had some surprising twists. It was well written, and an easy read. It certainly made me think a little more sympathetically about the treatment of immigrants in our country - especially under the current administration.
- Reviewed in the United States on October 8, 2018I was disappointed by this book and the lack of plot depth. I really pushed myself to keep reading, hoping the reward would be found in a great ending. Instead, it was just as bland as the slow progression and roundabout character narratives that never progressed or excited.
From a cultural perspective, there were interesting elements of class, rural v urban upbringings and assimilation to American Chinese life. However, so many other novels have painted these lessons beautifully with so much more substance. I couldn’t take Hau’s depiction seriously.
- Reviewed in the United States on July 30, 2019A poignant story of a poor young Chinese girl who gets involved with her factory boss, becomes pregnant & is sent to American to have the child born a US citizen. All because early tests indicated it was going to be a boy & his wife had only been able to give him girls. Once in America, she finds out it will be a girl and is afraid of the repercussions. She and another pregnant Chinese girl decide to run away, hide someplace & try to make it on their own. The final outcome leaves a lot of questions as this is something that is happening today.
- Reviewed in the United States on September 27, 2018This story took me into a culture that I knew very little about. We’ll-written and compelling story about two very different women who become family as they shelter and nurture their newborns. The women are strong and intelligent and have to surmount overwhelming circumstances to survive and keep their children with them. Very good read.
- Reviewed in the United States on November 21, 2020Hua’s touching and beautifully written novel relates the story of Scarlett and Daisy, modern day immigrants to the US, and their struggles and willingness to work hard to find a place and a way to live. Thrown together at Perfume Bay, a southern California home for unwed Chinese mothers, the two young women make their escape in a stolen van from a pre-ordained future that they find suffocating. They head to San Francisco’s Chinatown to give themselves and their babies a new beginning. And there, in gritty conditions and with only each other to rely on, they learn to trust and believe in the future they are creating. A River of Stars is a vivid, sometimes heartbreaking and sometimes laugh-out-loud funny addition to the list of other excellent literary novels about the complexities of family and gender relationships in China and of the Chinese immigrant experience.
- Reviewed in the United States on August 19, 2020Scarlet is one tough Chinese woman. She has escaped harsh childhood poverty in her own country, managed to find work in a prosperous company where she captures the attention of the "boss." When she becomes pregnant, her lover arranges for her to come to the U.S. so his son can have U.S. citizenship. And that's when Scarlett's determination to survive shines.
She manages to escape from the threat of losing her child, makes her way to San Francisco's Chinatown, and rebuilds her life while figuring out how to escape deportation--all the time caring for her newborn baby.
This story had the potential to be heart-wrenching, and at times it was. But the deep level of engagement was uneven. For much of the story, I felt kept at a distance from this Chinese immigrant experience.
One reason was the sudden shift in point of view from Scarlett to the father of her child. This shift might have been less disruptive if it had come earlier, but it came well after I was totally involved in Scarlet's worldview.
During the story, I felt most engaged when it centered on Scarlet and Daisy. Otherwise, I felt I was being given a stage aside--meanwhile in China Boss Yeung visits Scarlett's childhood home and meets her mother.
Great potential, but for me not as satisfying as I felt it could have been.
- Reviewed in the United States on February 20, 2019Scarlett is strong and resourceful. She manages, through her own grit and imagination, to make a life for herself. A lack of trust, though well-founded, is limiting. I enjoyed the setting, the tension, the mystery. I felt the ending was too neat, too pat; cinematic (it would make a good movie), so for that I subtracted one star.
Top reviews from other countries
- Anita BrooksReviewed in Canada on August 23, 2020
1.0 out of 5 stars Poorly written
I felt that the novel was poorly written. It took a lot of effort to finish reading.