Advance praise

Daughters of Yangtze finds its power in small, aching details: a well that haunts a family for decades, a hairpin that breaks a woman's spirit, a deathbed promise years in the making. What keeps grief from overwhelming the novel is the author Chun Bleau's wit. Her characters cope through irony rather than giving in to despair. By deploying gallows humor at exactly the right moments, the genuine devastations of this novel land even harder thanks to the levity that came before. This is a meticulously researched, deeply moving family saga.

— George Weinstein, author of the historical bestseller Hardscrabble Road and other novels

An instant classic—this story is incredible. Through one family’s separation and branching paths, Bleau brings depth and humanity to a complex time in China’s recent past. Daughters of Yangtze is compelling, moving, and rich.

— Lauren Kelliher, editor, Sourcebooks

[Daughters of Yangtze] avoids the temptation of easy moralizing about the bogeyman of Chinese communism. Instead, it offers a searching portrait of ordinary people carving out space for the human spirit in the face of overwhelming power.

— Judge, Terry Kay Prize for Fiction, Atlanta Writers Club 2026 Annual Writing Contest

Daughters of Yangtze is a masterful retelling of China’s modern history from the late 1930s until 1981. It is a riveting account, told from the perspective of three generations of a Chinese family, and captures the reader’s imagination with its fascinating, but completely believable plot. Beautifully written and truly evocative of the struggles of two sisters amidst the chaos of the four decades that encompass events from the Japanese invasion to the end of the Cultural Revolution.

— Brian M. Salzburg, Emeritus Professor of Neuroscience, School of Medicine at the University of Pennsylvania

Daughters of Yangtze does what many historical novels fail to do. Never didactic, Bleau guides her readers through the complicated history of the time by creating relatable characters. Always engaging, the author leaves readers with more than knowledge about another culture. She leaves us with the memories of women who prevail and thrive in a time and place where neither of these is easy. More importantly, she draws us into a gentle celebration of the human spirit.

— Katherine Nichols, author of suspense with heart and humor