The Tea Girl of Hummingbird Lane

February 6, 2017
Li-Yan is the youngest daughter of an Ahka family near Nannuo Mountain in China in 1949. She tries to follow Ahka law, the rules set forth by the beliefs of this ethnic minority, but at every turn she seems to find herself doing the opposite: An Ahka girl must obey and learn from her mother, but Li-Yan studies hard at a modern school. Although an Ahka girl should not speak to men, when foreigners arrive from Hong Kong in search of a renowned, aged tea called Pu’er, Li-Yan is the only one who can translate. If an Ahka girl gets pregnant, she must marry the boy, but when Li-Yan gives birth, the father is gone. And, according to Ahka law, a child born outside of marriage must be killed. But Li-Yan cannot bring herself to do it. Instead, she leaves her daughter at the doorstep of an orphanage. While Li-Yan matures into a successful tea master, the daughter, Haley, is adopted into a white American family in Los Angeles, and her existence is revealed in sporadic letters, school reports, and, later, emails. These sections capture both Haley’s desire to fully integrate into her adopted family and her curiosity and heartache about her mother and the only clue she left behind: a tea cake. With vivid and precise details about tea and life in rural China, Li-Yan’s gripping journey to find her daughter comes alive.

Through Ruthie Ann Miles's earnest narration, listeners are quickly drawn into a culturally complex and historically rich story spanning two continents, multiple generations, several families, and many hardships. The narrative format is an interesting hybrid. Multiple narrators give scope and varied characterizations to several scenes, but the bulk of the narration is done by Miles from the perspective of Li-Yan and by Kimiko Glenn as Hayley. See's writing is evocative, with vivid imagery and a strong sense of place, and the cast serves to enhance her storytelling through spirited characterizations and a keen understanding of each person's relation to the overall work. Ideal for fans of historical fiction, coming-of-age tales, and tea. K.S.B. � AudioFile 2017, Portland, Maine

June 5, 2017
Miles reads most of the novel in the role of Li-yan, a girl of the Akha, one of China’s 55 ethnic minority groups. She works well as a breathy 10-year-old, but doesn’t seem to mature much in voice or tone as listeners follow Li-yan through her painful teen and beyond as she becomes an accomplished adult. The novel provides excellent detail about the Akhas’ eked-out life in their mountain home, tea culture, gender roles, and folk beliefs in the pre- and post–Deng Xiaoping eras. It then contrasts all this sharply with the life of Li-yan’s abandoned daughter, Haley, and other adopted Chinese girls spoiled by American parents. Several other actors—Alexandra Allwine, Jeremy Bobb, Kimiko Glenn, Joy Osmanski, Emily Walton, Erin Wilhelmi, and Gabra Zackman—lend their voices for these secondary characters. Their performances are all strong, and the variety helps listens stay attuned through a long story. A Scribner hardcover.