Where Waters Meet

4 4 out of 5 stars | 7,203 ratings

Price: 4.99

Last update: 05-09-2024


About this item

A daughter discovers the dramatic history that shaped her mother’s secret life in an emotional and immersive novel by Zhang Ling, the bestselling author of A Single Swallow.

There was rarely a time when Phoenix Yuan-Whyller’s mother, Rain, didn’t live with her. Even when Phoenix got married, Rain, who followed her from China to Toronto, came to share Phoenix’s life. Now at the age of eighty-three, Rain’s unexpected death ushers in a heartrending separation.

Struggling with the loss, Phoenix comes across her mother’s suitcase—a memory box Rain had brought from home. Inside, Phoenix finds two old photographs and a decorative bottle holding a crystallized powder. Her auntie Mei tells her these missing pieces of her mother’s early life can only be explained when they meet, and so, clutching her mother’s ashes, Phoenix boards a plane for China. What at first seems like a daughter’s quest to uncover a mother’s secrets becomes a startling journey of self-discovery.

Told across decades and continents, Zhang Ling’s exquisite novel is a tale of extraordinary courage and survival. It illuminates the resilience of humanity, the brutalities of life, the secrets we keep and those we share, and the driving forces it takes to survive.


From the Publisher

Quote from Jianan Qian, O. Henry Prize Winner

Cover image for Where Waters Meet

Quote from Devi S. Laskar, author of The Atlas of Reds and Blues


Top reviews from the United States

TM
5.0 out of 5 stars The English language has just gained an amazing author
Reviewed in the United States on April 28, 2023
Having read many of Zhang Ling’s previous novels in Chinese, I came to Where Waters Meet, her first book written in English, with an open mind and really didn’t know what to expect. For the first dozens or so pages, I was in constant awe of her poetic prose, which has the same vivid intensity as in her native tongue. My awe over the language was soon overtaken by the engrossing tale itself. For the remainder of my reading, the prose felt almost transparent, like the thematic water carrying her story forward.

For those who have read her last book - A Single Swallow, a revisit to the secret warehouse site outside of Wenzhou city, Zhang’s hometown, following the Japanese air raid and brutal invasion in 1944, would feel very familiar. That time and place seems to be the epicenter of the author’s mythic imagining, a sort of Macondo where her stories of intersecting lives spring forward.

I like how Zhang uses the structure of email correspondence and edited manuscripts to tell the story, allowing us to unravel the family secrets together with the narrator, while also giving the space to foreshadow crucial moments in email references that precede the manuscripts. The trauma is experienced both with present tense immediacy through the mother in the manuscript, and through the shock and sense of loss, dulled by time and displacement, of the daughter who writes it. It is a powerful story expertly told.

I can only imagine how hard it is for an award winning author to give up her mother tongue (due to mounting censorship in China) in pursuit of creative freedom, but when a door closes, a window opens. The English language has just gained an amazing author.
kat
4.0 out of 5 stars interesting read
Reviewed in the United States on April 18, 2024
I enjoyed this book, but will say I spent a good deal of it lost and trying to figure out what was going on. That is probably just me and how my brain works. As the book started coming to a close I started putting the pieces together but still ended up wondering if I understood it after all. Seems I may need to read it again.
Elizabeth Bennet
3.0 out of 5 stars Beautiful novel; questionable pacing
Reviewed in the United States on August 21, 2023
There are many brilliant elements to this book; the language is rich, the story fascinating. The pacing and timeline of the book however leave one to slog through the first few sections full of background detail in order to get to the meatier bits of the novel. It almost feels as if the author is unsure of the story she wants to tell. Is it the mother’s life events, or the sacrifices she made? To what end? Is it a story about the love of two sisters and the horrors that tore them apart? The story of life and love and the choices we make? The strangest thing for me is that I feel like I’m leaving this book without a real sense of who these women truly are. Often I leave a book feeling like I will miss the characters, or a residue of them slips into my life. I think X would be horrified or Y would love this. I have no sense of that with these characters. I admire them for their fierce survival and have tremendous sympathy for what they have gone through, but I can easily put them back on the shelf without too much thought.

That said, the book is a deeper more intellectual read than one often finds these days, and overall the story is a good one. Whether I would recommend it to a friend however would depend far more on the individual. It isn’t for everyone.
b1sally
5.0 out of 5 stars Beautifully written - almost poetic at times
Reviewed in the United States on May 21, 2023
This is the first book Zhang has written in English. She says that Chinese is her first language and she could express herself better in Chinese. The prose in this book is beautiful; her use of the English language is excellent, and almost poetic. Her description of peoples' thoughts and actions is tight and in places heart-rending. At first glance, this is another story of an adult who discovers her mother has a past she didn’t know about. Determining truth from fiction plays a major role in the book as the story of the mother's life is unpeeled one layer at a time with surprises in every layer. It also a book about how women in Chinese culture and the Chinese diaspora culture relate to each other, to the men in their lives and to the world. I look forward to reading the translated versions of her previous books and I cannot wait to read her future works written in English.
Maria QH
4.0 out of 5 stars Beautifully written but devoid of joy
Reviewed in the United States on June 28, 2023
I supposed that, even in the saddest and most tragic tales, I tend to wish for a bit of joy and happiness, a semblance of sunlight in an otherwise dreadful existence. I understand that’s the core of their stories, and yet it zapped my energy and I almost closed the book for good about halfway thru. Such a desolate political and social backdrop, depressing to say the least.

Also, the timeline jumps didn’t work for me. Half of the time I was picturing a middle age person when she, or they, were barely teens … and so on. Confusing. Next time I will pay more attention.

However, I had to see it thru. Amazingly well written and more so considering the author’s country of origin. Beautiful prose.

I have already recommended this book to others, with a footnote: not a feel-good story, at least not to me.
Brenda A. Chaney
5.0 out of 5 stars curious and ambitious
Reviewed in the United States on January 15, 2024
So many characters in this story! How they are all woven together is supreme. I felt many emotions while reading. The different points of view acknowledge how we all remember and experience life when at a certain age. I loved each chapter. Thank you.
Vicki Yiengst
4.0 out of 5 stars heartbreaking revelations
Reviewed in the United States on February 2, 2024
I enjoyed hearing about the historical events from the eyes of the young woman living in China although the sequence was sometimes confusing. It was sometimes difficult to find the truth in what was being said. The author reveals much about Asian culture that was eye opening to me, especially insight into a people existing on limited provisions or hope.
DJG
3.0 out of 5 stars Will give a 2nd read
Reviewed in the United States on November 19, 2023
Overall, I found this story interesting, but hard to follow. However, this may have been a problem of my own rather than of the author's. The names of the characters and the locations were not familiar to me and I found them difficult to keep track of. Even though the author told the dates, the story jumped back and forth and I had difficulty following.
I think, after awhile I might like to read this again, now that I am more familiar with the characters, the storyline and the time line. I would like to see if I would then enjoy "Where Waters Meet" more. I am glad that I read the book to the end. I feel that I learned from this book.

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