From the author of the bestselling memoir 'The Kiss', Kathryn Harrison's passionate fourth novel takes us to Shanghai as the last century ends. Beautiful, charismatic and destructive, May escapes an arranged marriage in rural China for life in a Shanghai brothel, where, in 1899, she meets Arthur, an Australian. As a member of the Foot Emancipation Society, Arthur calls on May not for his pleasure but for her rehabilitation, only to find himself helplessly seduced by the sight of her bound feet. Reforming May is ...
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From the author of the bestselling memoir 'The Kiss', Kathryn Harrison's passionate fourth novel takes us to Shanghai as the last century ends. Beautiful, charismatic and destructive, May escapes an arranged marriage in rural China for life in a Shanghai brothel, where, in 1899, she meets Arthur, an Australian. As a member of the Foot Emancipation Society, Arthur calls on May not for his pleasure but for her rehabilitation, only to find himself helplessly seduced by the sight of her bound feet. Reforming May is out of the question, so Arthur marries her instead, and brings her home to live with his sister Dolly, her husband Dick, and their two girls Alice and Cecily. In Alice May sees the possibility of redemption: a surrogate for the child she has lost. And it is to May that Alice turns for the love her own mother withholds. But when the twelve-year-old is caught preparing her aunt's opium pipe, Alice is enrolled in a London boarding school, far from the dangerous influence of the woman who will come to reclaim her, and to control the whole family. A startling story of travel and flight, the search for home and the need to escape it. Where traditions and cultures clash, tragedy threatens a world built on the banks of unsettled waters - from the filthy, bustling Whangpoo River to the lake of blood in the Chinese afterworld.
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Seller's Description:
Dispatched, from the UK, within 48 hours of ordering. Though second-hand, the book is still in very good shape. Minimal signs of usage may include very minor creasing on the cover or on the spine. Damaged cover. The cover of is slightly damaged for instance a torn or bent corner.
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Seller's Description:
Dispatched, from the UK, within 48 hours of ordering. This book is in good condition but will show signs of previous ownership. Please expect some creasing to the spine and/or minor damage to the cover. Damaged book. Slightly damaged in some way typically, a grazed corner or torn cover.
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Seller's Description:
Good. Signed Copy First edition copy. Collectible-Good. Signed by author on title page. Slightly dampstained. In protective mylar cover. (historical fiction, china, literature)