Three Souls

December 2, 2013
In Chang’s moving fiction debut, the ghost of a young woman, Song Leiyin, recalls the civil war period of the late 1920s and early 1930s in China. As the narrative begins, Leiyin is observing her own funeral and has no memory of her past life. Her three souls—yin, yang, and hun—help her begin to recover her memories so that she can atone for her wrongdoings and earn a chance for reincarnation. The smart but naïve daughter of a wealthy man, Leiyin’s troubles begin when she falls for Yen Hanchin, a charming, self-serving socialist. He encourages Leiyin to defy her father and pursue her dream of becoming a teacher. When her disobedience is discovered, her father angrily betroths her to a man she’s never met, the barely literate Lee Baizhen. Chang deftly conveys how the initially despairing Leiyin comes to accept her kind-hearted husband, particularly after they have a daughter, Weilan. Hanchin’s reappearance, however, shatters Leiyin’s peaceful existence. As the book nears its suspenseful climax, Leiyin struggles to protect her daughter as well as her own soul. Though Chang slips into cliché when describing Leiyin’s relationship with Hanchin, the majority of her novel bristles with freshness and heart. Agent: Jill Marr, Dijkstra Agency.

February 15, 2014
Revolutionary and domestic politics collide in this tale of a woman's ghost attempting to understand her life decisions and make amends for her transgressions. Set against the Chinese civil war, Chang's debut novel explores the frustrations of intelligent women valued only for beauty and obedience. A young woman's consciousness awakens at her own funeral, surrounded by her three souls: her yin, manifesting as a dancing schoolgirl; her yang, manifesting as an elderly scholar; and her han, manifesting as a silhouette of light. Until she can remember her sins, she cannot ascend to the afterlife and reincarnation; she runs the risk of becoming a hungry ghost, roaming the Earth for eternity. To help her remember, Song Leiyin's souls make her watch her own life unfold again, beginning with the evening of her sister's engagement party, the night she met Yen Hanchin. Born into a traditional and prosperous family, the three Song daughters realize their dreams are circumscribed. Leiyin's eldest sister, Gaoyin, already married, worries that if she doesn't conceive a child soon, her husband will take a concubine. Leiyin's second sister, Sueyin, is betrothed to a well-connected young man far more interested in opium than the business world. Leiyin's eldest brother, Changyin, waits in the wings to become the family patriarch, while her second brother, Tongyin, squanders his educational opportunities at college to drink and mingle with friends. Leiyin herself longs to continue school, to become a teacher, to make a difference in China. When she meets Hanchin--poet, translator and political agitator--Leiyin's aspirations gain a romantic edge. Her plans to escape her father's oppressive household, however, quickly land her in an unexpected marriage. Still, her ambitions and her desire for Hanchin simmer, waiting for a startlingly tragic opportunity. Now, her ghost must find a way to repair the damage wrought. Historically and politically compelling, yet the three-soul plot device is contrived.

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January 1, 2014
In the midst of civil war on the eve of the Chinese Revolution, Song Leiyin awakens to find herself rising above her own funeral. According to Chinese tradition, she joins her soul, trapped in the space between Earth and the afterlife. She must revisit her life to right whatever wrong is keeping her from going on to reincarnation. Leiyin is alternately joyful and pained as she remembers the moments of her youth. Growing up, she strained against the chains imposed by her traditional Chinese family, ultimately committing a misstep that ended in her father arranging an unwelcome marriage. But even this fate had its joys. Now endowed with the gift of hindsight, Leiyin grieves her errors and urgently strives to set things right for her family, her husband, and her young daughter before it's too late. Leiyin is a sympathetic character, and her journey of self-realization is mirrored in China's time of political upheaval as traditional culture gives way to the future. Both heartbreaking and hopeful, Janie Chang's first novel is an immersive and enjoyable read.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2014, American Library Association.)