The Valley of Amazement

The Valley of Amazement, a work of historical fiction first published in 2013, is the sixth novel by author Amy Tan. This guide refers to the Kindle Edition for citations. Tan primarily writes about the complexity of the mother-daughter bond and about the experience of being Chinese American. In The Valley of Amazement, a mother and daughter recount their lives in early-20th-century Shanghai and San Francisco.

Tan’s debut novel, The Joy Luck Club (1989), became a bestseller and garnered multiple awards for its author. Her other works include The Kitchen God's Wife (1991), The Hundred Secret Senses (1995), The Bonesetter's Daughter (2001), and Saving Fish from Drowning (2005). Adaptations of her work include a film of The Joy Luck Club made in 1993 and an opera adaptation of The Bonesetter’s Daughter in 2008.

Plot Summary

The Valley of Amazement is told from the first-person perspectives of Violet and Lulu. Violet narrates the story of her life beginning as a seven-year-old in 1905 Shanghai through her adulthood until 1939. Three chapters late in the book are narrated by her mother, Lulu, as a 16-year-old in 1897 San Francisco through her move to Shanghai the same year. She also narrates her return trip to San Francisco in 1912 and subsequent events in 1914.