Professor Poshek Fu, Asian American Studies, University of Illinois, Urbana.
“This is an ambitious novel. Mixing facts and fantasy, through the amazing life of Arielle (Buddhist shaman name Tara) and the networks of characters encountered, the novel brings to us a grandiose, colossal landscape of Chinese history in the last 100 years … wars, rebellions, economic crisis, foreign occupation, cultural chaos and revolution. Human experiences and their historical contexts, private lives and public morality are so touchingly intertwined. The novel is as captivating as enlightening. A great achievement.”