Four Treasures of the Sky

In Jenny Tinghui Zhang's «Four Treasures of the Sky» prepare to walk the tightrope of survival alongside Lin Daya, a 13-year-old girl ripped from her life in China and plunged into the turbulent underbelly of 19th-century America. Kidnapped and smuggled across the ocean, Daya lands in a San Francisco brothel, her name stolen, her future rewritten. But this girl named for a doomed heroine carries her own defiant spirit.

Daya refuses to be a victim. In this land where anti-Chinese sentiment crackles like wildfire, she sheds identities like snakeskins, becoming a boy, a laborer, a runaway – anything but the tragic figure fate seems to have carved for her. Through sun-scorched Californian valleys and the frigid Idaho mountains, her journey becomes a tapestry woven with hardship and hope. She finds solace in unexpected friendships, faces brutal truths behind the gilded facade of the American Dream, and grapples with a love that both illuminates and threatens her newfound freedom.

«Four Treasures of the Sky» is more than a historical saga; it's a visceral testament to the human capacity for resilience. It asks: how do we forge our own stories amidst the darkness? What treasures do we carry within, even when stripped bare? In Daya's defiant spirit, you'll find answers that echo across generations and borders, urging you to claim your own place in the sky.