The artist must master the art of releasing the brush, giving it the space and freedom to find itself again.’ When Daiyu, the protagonist of Jenny Tinghui Zhang’s debut novel, Four Treasures of the Sky, is abducted from the fish market, she’s a desperately hungry 13-year-old girl passing herself off as a boy. The year is 1882, the place is China. Daiyu’s parents have been arrested and their fate and whereabouts are unknown. When news of the arrest reaches Daiyu’s grandmother, the woman trims the girl’s hair and dresses her in boys’ clothing and sends her to Zhifu, a nearby town with a busy port. “Disappear in the city,” the grandmother counsels. “You are good with your hands — you will find honest work.” Adopting the name Feng, Daiyu finds work cleaning a private school where young men learn the art of calligraphy. Daiyu’s hands are indeed dextrous, but so is her mind; she listens to the exacting Master Wang and observes everything around her carefully and intently, and soon she is dipping a brush in ink and absorbing the discipline and philosophy of calligraphy, lessons she will not forget. It seems she has found refuge with Master Wang, until hunger drives her to the fish market and a chance encounter with a man named Jasper. Daiyu’s parents disappear without explanation when she is young girl. To protect her from a similar fate, her grandmother dresses her as a boy and sends her to live on the streets of Zhifu. Here, she meets Master Wang, a local calligraphy artist who takes her under his care and offers her a job. While at the school, Daiyu discovers her passion for calligraphy and Master Wang begins to teach her the art form. Zhang’s debut novel imaginatively illuminates an often overlooked aspect of American history that resonates powerfully today, the Chinese Exclusion Act of 1882 and concurrent anti-Asian violence… Zhang’s blend of history and magical realism will appeal to fans of Ta-Nehisi Coates’ The Water Dancer as well as Amy Tan's The Valley of Amazement.”

Zhang’s blend of history and magical realism will appeal to fans of Ta-Nehisi Coates’ The Water Dancer as well as Amy Tan's The Valley of Amazement .” ― Booklist (starred review) Loss figures prominently in this remarkably assured and executed debut: loss of parents and place, country and freedom, identity and gender, trust and friendship. Jasper is a procurer of human flesh who forces Daiyu to learn English in preparation for some purpose unknown to her. All she can do is keep her wits about her as the days pass into weeks. Alone in the dark she thinks about a girl in a fable she was named after, a tragic figure who died of a broken heart; this figure becomes a kind of alter ego, at times a chide and goad, but also a companion. The lessons continue until the day Jasper stuffs Daiyu into a wooden crate filled with coal and sends her across the ocean to San Francisco in America where Madam Lee’s brothel waits. RASCOE: Yeah, and it's really - it seemed like, you know, this idea of, how much of your life is fate? And how much is it that you own and that you make it - of it what you can? RASCOE: That is a word about men and a certain form of manhood, right? Like, I felt like Daiyu really had - I feel like she got men's number with that. (Laughter). How did you come to that? Because there is this thing of your strength; you're strong; you feel no pain. None of that is true. Men feel pain and all these things.Where have you been, a voice says. It comes from above, the color of honey. I have been looking all over for you. Discuss William’s and Nelson’s different approaches to resisting the racism and discrimination around them. When Nelson asks Daiyu to join their efforts, she tells him, “I came here against my will . . . This is not my country. These are not my people. This is not my problem.” Do you sympathize with Daiyu, or do you agree with Nelson that this is a selfish perspective? Radiant…A treasure of a debut…[Zhang’s] first novel reveals storytelling skills both vast and specific, bringing shadowy history to light while also displaying a remarkable talent for sensory detail.” Jenny Tinghui Zhang, did an outstanding job delivering this heart wrenching emotional - very personal historical novel. Brilliant and devastating, Four Treasures of the Sky tells the story of Daiyu, who is brought to America against her will and forced to hide who she is even as she grows into her true self. Weaving together myth and history, Zhang’s work is both timeless and utterly necessary right now.”

At the end of this novel, is a very informative and interesting author’s note about how the story is based on a real life unexplained event. I wish that this author’s note was at the beginning of the story instead of the end, so I could better prepare myself for what is to come, which is a story of emotional devastation caused by the real life actions of our own history as Americans.

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On top of a fantastic voice-driven narrative, Zhang has crafted a gorgeous work of historical fiction that captures a little-discussed portion of American history centered on the Chinese Exclusion Act of 1882, which mandated a 10-year moratorium on Chinese labor immigration. With anti-Asian sentiment at a new high now, revisiting this period of our history feels necessary and crucial, not to mention educational. The mining town of Pierce, where Jacob (Daiyu) ends up in Part 3 of the book, is written vividly and meticulously. And though it is clear that Zhang has done her research, the descriptions are never overwritten. She lives and breathes her settings. The history, though precise and accurate, feels naturally written, as though she lived it herself and is merely recounting. When she finds out from William that Jasper has died, Daiyu asks, “What do I have to fear, now that the threat of Jasper is gone? Who is Daiyu without her villain? Who will I be now that I can be anything?” Do you agree that we often define ourselves against a villain? What role does Jasper play in Daiyu’s story? The publisher wrote: “Daiyu assumes different identities, escaping the brothel of Madam Lee to work in the mines in Idaho, where she masquerades as a boy. As anti-Chinese sentiment sweeps across the country, Daiyu must draw on each of the selves she has been – including the ones she most wants to leave behind – to finally claim her own name and story.” Jenny Tinghui Zhang captures the adventure, the isolation, the violence, and the glittering hope of the American West. The author's fine attention to historical and human detail has allowed her to bring alive a heroine for the ages, an indomitable teenage girl whose relentless spirit and self-reinvention carries this story. Daiyu is sure to take her place in the canon of great Western heroines next to True Grit's Mattie Ross.”

In San Francisco and later Idaho, the spirit of Lin Daiyu allows teenaged Daiyu to emotionally detach from traumatic experiences, both as a girl and again disguised as a boy. Daiyu learns it is just as dangerous in the US for Chinese women as it is for Chinese men. She often finds it difficult to decide which identity will best help her survive. She finally falls in with a loyal group of Cantonese men in Pierce, Idaho, disguised as a boy named Jacob Li. By 1885, many of the previous Chinese residents of that town have left and Daiyu realizes Idaho is no safer than the lawless San Francisco. It would take Daiyu years to learn that her grandmother was correct. She spends her childhood trying to prove to herself that she is nothing like the character from the book, even as she faces disappointment after disappointment. First, her parents are arrested in China and taken away, then her grandmother sends her away, disguised as a boy so as to avoid being recognized by the people who arrested her parents. Daiyu apprentices under a master calligrapher who becomes a surrogate father until she is kidnapped and smuggled against her will to the United States. It is on the ship that Daiyu mentally summons her namesake. Lin Daiyu, born in a fishing village outside Zhifu, China, recounted memories of home. Grandmother had a large garden of vegetables and herbs. "In that garden, I learned to care for living things...my grandmother wanted to teach me...patience." "It was my mother who taught me how to be good with my hands." "My father taught me to work with my mind." RASCOE: But there's this idea that men shouldn't and that they should go around the world, really, as if they're invincible. And they're not, right?Four Treasures of the Sky is divided into four parts, which are titled by the name of the place in which the events of that part transpire. The parts are further divided into series of unnamed chapters of varying lengths. Daiyu, a young orphan from Zhifu, China, is the novel’s first person narrator. An exhilarating rush of character, history, and storytelling. This novel of the American West illuminates the horrific realities of the Chinese Exclusion act of the 1880s. With unforgettable characters, resiliency, and poetic lyricism, Jenny Tinghui Zhang takes her readers on an unforgettable adventure. This carefully researched novel dazzles.” Inspired by the brutal true event in America in 1885 when five Chinese immigrants were hanged by vigilantes for the alleged murder of a local white shop owner, the novel is told through the voice of Daiyu, who is kidnapped from a fish market in China in 1883 and smuggled to a brothel in San Francisco. The novel charts Daiyu’s fight for survival in America. RASCOE: In this story, you have a ghost form of Lin Daiyu. So this is the character from the famous stories. She appears in your story as a ghost. Like, how do you want the reader to interpret Lin Daiyu the spirit?

Brilliant and devastating . . . Weaving together myth and history, Zhang's work is both timeless and utterly necessary right now' ANNA NORTH, New York Times bestselling author of Outlawed A surreal and sprawling story…Historical fiction that lays bare the human tragedy behind the infamous Chinese Exclusion Act.” Four Treasures of the Sky" by debut author Jenny Tinghi Zhang is a powerful, eye-opening work of historical fiction which highlights a little known chapter in American history. The Chinese Exclusion Act of 1882 created a ten year moratorium on Chinese labor immigration. A historical signpost on a road in Idaho denoting a vigilante hanging was the inspiration for this magnificent novel. Kudos to Zhang for a well researched, haunting, emotionally filled read with overtones of magical realism and Chinese folklore. Highly recommended. Daiyu’s parents taught her that her intentions and actions must always match. How do you interpret that lesson? Do you think Daiyu ultimately achieves, as she describes it, “the perfect line”?They barely escape the brothel safely. When they do, Samuel cuts Daiyu’s hair and gives her identification papers that create her new identity of Jacob Li. The reach Boise and find accommodations in a makeshift Taoist temple. Daiyu finally feels safe and sleeps deeply. She is awakened by an old man who rapes her and takes her virginity. Samuel does nothing to protect her, though he is sleeping in the same bed. An astonishing novel propelled by private and public histories, rich with reflections on self-making, moral calling, great love, and profound injustice. Jenny Tinghui Zhang's writing enthralled me—it is as honed as a needle and as gorgeous as calligraphy.” She decides to stay in Pierce and help him bring a lawsuit against another Idaho town, where a recent massacre left many innocent Chinese people dead. They wake one morning to Sheriff Bates, who announces that they are under arrest for the murder of Daniel Foster, the owner of the rival general store. They are thrown into prison without evidence. The examination of the calligraphy functions as a metaphor for the pursuit of the Self in many ways, as the notion of becoming art through your being is a recurring motif in the novel. This also becomes insightful to the multiple layers and dynamic character building of the narrator as each adopted identity compiles together. Though, even if only taken on a surface level, the lessons on being an artist are just as instructive and inspiring: A Best Book of the Year ( The New York Times, TODAY, BookRiot, SheReads, Paste Magazine, Library Journal, Shelf Awareness)