An epic spanning more than half a century of Taiwan's history, this breathtaking historical novel traces the fortunes of the Pengs, a family of Hakka Chinese settlers, across three generations from the 1890s, just before Taiwan was ceded to Japan as a result of the Sino-Japanese war, through World War II. Li Qiao brilliantly re-creates the dramatic world of these pioneers--and the colonization of Taiwan itself--exploring their relationships with the aboriginal peoples of Taiwan and their struggle to establish their own ethnic and political identities.

This carefully researched work of...