The Tale of Murasaki
By Liza Crihfield Dalby

Out of the life and work of Lady Murasaki, the author of, the world's first novel, The Tale of Genji, Liza Dalby has woven an exquisite and irresistible fiction that with rich, nuanced authenticity and lyrical drama, brings an elaborate past world to vivid life.

The Samurai's Garden
By Gail Tsukiyama

The author of Women of the Silk has created a small, moving masterpiece. This new novel centers around a young Chinese man visiting Japan and his relationship with four local residents. What then ensues is a tale that readers will find at once classical yet utterly unique.

The Language of Threads
By Gail Tsukiyama

In her acclaimed debut novel, Women of the Silk, Gail Tsukiyama told the moving story of Pei, brought to work in the silk house as a girl, grown into a quiet but determined young woman whose life was subject to cruel twists of fate, including the loss of her closest friend, Lin. Now we finally learn what happened to Pei, as she leaves the silk house for Hong Kong in the 1930s, arriving with a young orphan, Ji Shen, in her care. 

Women of the Silk
By Gail Tsukiyama

"In pre-World War II China, many impoverished families sent their young daughters to work in silk factories. . . . {This novel} tells the story of one such girl, Pei, who is summarily deposited in the care of a stranger called Auntie Yee, the manager of a boarding house that provides food, clothes and lodging to the girls who work in the factory. In time, Pei's sense of abandonment fades as she develops deep friendships with other girls and adjusts to the grueling conditions in the factory. Against a backdrop of change in China, Pei grows into womanhood." (N Y Times Book Rev)