A River of Stars: A Novel

When Scarlett Chen finds out she is pregnant and that her baby is a boy, her married lover, Boss Yeung, sends her to Los Angeles, where his friend Mama Lang oversees a maternity home for Chinese women. Securing a green card for their babies is the ultimate goal–especially for a baby like Scarlett’s, who Boss Yeung sees as his heir. Another ultrasound reveals a surprise: Scarlett’s baby isn’t a boy after all, but a girl. If anyone finds out, she risks having the baby taken away. Intent on protecting her child, and fearing the wrath of Boss Yeung, she flees from the home with a defiant teenager named Daisy. They settle in San Francisco’s Chinatown, where, together with their babies, they must forge an unexpected family as their dreams of the future wobble in the everyday struggle for survival.

Hua writes beautifully about the life that simmers beyond the touristy face of Chinatown, and the heartbreak women face in China as their maternal instincts clash with political realities. Abstract horrors become specific, and personal. Scarlett and Daisy are shaped by community, self-reliance, ingenuity, and ambition, and when their destinies finally emerge, they feel wholly and justly earned.