"An exquisite rendering of life and love in this world and in the next."

--USA Today

"Accomplished... with healthy doses of suspense and romance... Read me, love me, discuss me, this book screams."

--San Francisco Chronicle

"A suspenseful and poignant tale... See is a master storyteller."

--Tbe Boston Globe

In seventeenth-century China, in an elaborate villa on the shores of Hangzhou’s West Lake, Peony lives a sheltered life. One night, during a theatrical performance in her family’s garden, Peony catches sight of an elegant, handsome man and is immediately overcome with emotion. So begins Peony’s unforgettable journey of love and destiny, desire and sorrow, the living world and the afterworld. Eventually expelled from all she’s known, Peony is thrust into an existence in which hungry ghosts wander the earth, written words have the power to hurt and kill, and dreams are as vivid as waking fife.