I’m delighted to share that Peach Blossom Spring has been selected as one of 10 debut titles in the Winter/Spring 2022 American Booksellers Association Indies Introduce programme. Twice a year, the Indies Introduce programme brings together booksellers from all over the US to choose ten books across fiction and non-fiction to champion in independent bookstores. The Indies Introduce programme also chooses ten debut titles across MG and YA books, which is wonderful. Reaching young readers is an important and joyful thing, and I’m glad to see these authors celebrated.
This honour is especially meaningful to me since one of my most favourite jobs was in BookHampton, an independent bookstore on Long Island, years and years ago. If you’re curious, here’s a link to current and previous Indies Introduce titles. Peach Blossom Spring is in some astonishingly good company!
Here are a few of the lovely things that the booksellers on the selection commitee had to say about my book:
An epic novel that spans decades and continents, starting in China in 1938 and going through modern-day U.S. We follow Meilin and Renshu as they flee China, seeking refuge and trying to survive. Decades later, Renshu’s daughter, Lily, wants to know her family history — to know who she is by finding out where she comes from. A beautifully written, arching story that wraps you up and whisks you away.
—Katrina Bright-Yerges, Books & Company, Ocomonowoc, WI
Three generations of one family search for peace and security both literally and figuratively in this debut novel that is not just good, but superbly magnificent. Spanning decades over the devastating landscape of WWII China to Taipei and then New Mexico, this is a journey that reminds us that a misfortune may well hold the seed of a blessing, and blessings can often hold the shadow of misfortune. And that while we must always move forward and not linger on what has been, we are the sum of our past and must make peace with it in order to truly be home. This is a book to savor for oh so very many reasons.
—BJ Hegedus, Postalworks Silver Lake, Los Angeles, CA
I can’t wait to put this book into readers’ hands and share this amazing story with others. It’s an epic saga that opens in 1938 in China as the invading Japanese army approaches, and a mother and son are forced to flee their home and struggle to survive. Ultimately the story spans generations and continents all the while examining the past as well as the power and terror and beauty of our very humanity.
—Cody Morrison, Square Books, Oxford, MS