Book summary

Ruth Young and Art Kamen live together in San Francisco, and the deterioration of their relationships renders Ruth unable to speak. Her Chinese mother, LuLing, who now has Alzheimer's, is another complicating factor in her life, but the diary she kept as a young woman still exists, and when Ruth reads it she comes to a better understanding of her family's dark history, her mother's sadness, and her own problems. A New York Times Notable Book for 2001.

Media reviews

"Spanning the 20th century, the book raises intriguing issues about the nature of literacy, the complications of immigration and the unpredictable lessons of aging. Tan's style is lively, witty, suspenseful and rich in historical detail....This very good novel could have been a brilliant one if not for [the] last 40 pages....Still, THE BONESETTER'S DAUGHTER is a strong novel, filled with idiosyncratic, sympathetic characters, haunting images, historical complexity, significant contemporary themes and suspenseful mystery."