This is my first read by Lisa See and I am enchanted for the rest of my life!
Historical-Fiction is one of my favorite genres and I love books which depict cultural diversity around the world. This is why I picked up this book. I know it’s wrong to judge a book by its cover, however, I wouldn’t lie I was lured by the stunning cover of this book and I am not sorry at all!
The Tea Girl of Hummingbird Lane sets in the remote village situated high in the mountains of Yunnan, China, which is the birthplace of the tea and the Akha ethnic-minority. The storyline revolves around Li-yan, the very first educated girl on her mountain, abandons her daughter in the nearest city with a tea cake hidden in her swaddling because of Akha people’s customs, rituals, and strict rules which never allow a woman to have a baby without a husband. Later on, Li-yan’s daughter, Haley, adopts by white American parents who love her dearly. Despite being raised by kind and loving parents and given a privileged childhood in California, Haley always wonders about her birth mom and her unknown birth origin. Li-yan and Haley both struggle to find their place and the story follows each one on their journey to hopefully finding the other.
Lisa See engages me emotionally from the very beginning of this book. While the novel starts in what feels like an ancient, rural Chinese village, it’s actually set in modern times. The modern world hasn’t just reached this Akha village yet, preserving their rituals and culture where twins born consider as a human reject. There is a heartbreaking scene where Deh-ja gives birth to twins and right after their first crying the twins are sacrificed in order to protect the village from evils. I silently wept reading this part and closed my eyes to calm down my tormented soul. This certainly is an unputdownable book, however, I couldn’t pick up the book for a long time as I was too scared to absorb another agonizing scene which might appear in the story.
I really appreciate the amount of time and effort Lisa obviously put into researching Akha tradition and heritage, and depth history of Pu’er tea. I am sort of tea addict and I really want to purchase a quality Pu’er tea someday.
I am overwhelmed by the portrayal of mother love in this book. Lisa See’s exceptional character build-up gives the book such nice depth and brings it to the next level.
Lisa See finished this book in a little bit dramatic and an obvious way yet I loved it! Definitely gonna check out her another works real soon!
Cover photo courtesy: booksnourish_caroleann
Tukunjil Nayeera 
I loved the way you described the book!! Its beautiful and enchanting!!!
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Thank you! You are so kind!! 💚
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This sounds like a gem of a book! Especially what you said about the mother. I’ll keep it in my list.
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