The Lost Daughter of Happiness

Book excerpt: From one of China's most acclaimed writers, this is an unflinching, erotic and exciting tale of forbidden love in the gold rush era of turn-of-the-century San Francisco. Geling Yan traces the lives of two individuals separated by prejudice and mistrust, but bound forever by their passion for one another. Fusang is a Chinese girl shanghaied from her village in China, brought to California and sold into the seedy underworld of prostitution. Soon she falls into an obsessive relationship with Chris, an 11-year-old boy. As years pass, numerous barriers are placed between the lovers - by Chris's wealthy family, and most menacingly by Fusang's murderous pimp, who bestrides Chinatown with a clutch of daggers at his waist.