"Riveting. A marvel of memory. Poignant proof of the human will to endure." —Amy Tan. "Brilliant, compelling, and unforgettable. A heart-rending modern day Cinderella story set against the turbulence of 20th century China. Autobiography at its best." —Nien Chang, author of Life and Death in Shanghai. "Charged with emotion...A vivid portrait of the human capacity for meanness, malice—and love." —Jung Chang, author of Wild Swans. "Fascinating and heart-rending stuff...a harrowing story of emotional cruelty." — The Times of London International bestseller. The emotionally wrenching yet ultimately uplifting memoir of a Chinese woman struggling to win the love and acceptance of her family. In this compelling memoir that scaled bestseller lists in England, Australia, and Hong Kong, Adeline Yen Mah chronicles her painful childhood growing up in a wealthy yet abusive Chinese family. The unwanted daughter scorned by her family, young Adeline dreamed of freedom and independence, ultimately escaping to the West to launch a successful career in medicine. When Adeline's mother died giving birth to her, she was deemed bad luck and ostracized by her family. Then her father took a beautiful Eurasian bride and Adeline soon fell victim to the wrath of her stepmother. Treated as a pariah, she was shuttled off to boarding schools, bullied by her siblings, and deprived of the beautiful clothes and things given to the rest of the family. Moving from Shanghai and Hong Kong to London and the United States, Falling Leaves is an enthralling saga of a prosperous Chinese family set against a background of changing political times and the collision of East and West. Written in haunting prose, it evokes all the suspense and emotional force of a satisfying novel. Snow White's stepmother looks like a pussycat compared to the monster under which Adeline Yen Mah suffered. The author's memoir of life in mainland China and--after the 1949 revolution--Hong Kong is a gruesome chronicle of nonstop emotional abuse from her wealthy father and his beautiful, cruel second wife. Chinese proverbs scattered throughout the text pithily covey the traditional world view that prompted Adeline's subservience. Had she not escaped to America, where she experienced a fulfilling medical career and a happy marriage, her story would be unbearable; instead, it's grimly fascinating: Falling Leaves is an Asian Mommie Dearest . This dramatic autobiography by a writer and doctor begins with the reading of a will that mystifies, then flashes back to recount events in a truly unpleasant family of seven brothers and sisters, a cruel French-Chinese stepmother, and a rich, uncaring father. In 1937, Adeline's mother died giving birth to her in Tienjin, marking her forever as bad luck. The family moved to Shanghai, then Hong Kong, with trips to Monte Carlo, London, and, finally, California for Adeline. In the meantime, with World War II, the Communist takeover in 1949, Maoism, the Cultural Revolution, and the return of Hong Kong to mainland China. Mostly, however, rivalries, jealousies, injustice, neglect, conniving, backbiting, and betrayal dominate this family. An intriguing tale, though it says less about China than about one particular Chinese family; for contemporary China collections.?Kitty Chen Dean, Nassau Coll., Garden City, Copyright 1998 Reed Business Information, Inc. The contrast between Mah's calm narrative voice and the harshness of her story is both haunting and instructive. Mah's family history has been shaped by the convulsions that rocked twentieth-century China, but it is the presence of strong women that emerges as the driving force in her piercing memoir. Mah's mother died just after she was born, so her female role models were her rebellious grandaunt, who founded a bank run by and for women in an era during which Chinese women were still having their feet bound, and her father's sister, who tried desperately to shield Mah from Niang, her vicious stepmother. Niang also defied the Chinese preference for submissive women, but she used her powers to malignant effect, poisoning her stepchildren's relationships with each other and with their father. But Mah, too, has proven to be indomitable, surviving a childhood of extreme, even surreal lovelessness and abuse to become a woman of profound compassion, and her compelling story is a testament to the transcendence of moral fortitude and forgiveness. Donna Seaman A well-told ``wicked stepmother'' story, with the vicious backdrop of racial inequality. Growing up in a wealthy Chinese family (first in Tianjin, then in Shanghai), Mah, born in 1937, is considered unlucky because her mother died giving birth to her. Her father marries a beautiful Eurasian woman, Jeanne, whom the children call Niang. Niang begrudges her stepchildren train fare to school while her own children are served tea in their rooms and are treated to beautiful new clothes. Mah's father, Joseph, too, mistreats his first wife's childre