Audiobooks narrated by Amy Tan

Where the Past Begins: A Writer’s Memoir

"From New York Times bestselling author Amy Tan, a memoir on her life as a writer, her childhood and the symbiotic relationship between fiction and emotional memory. In Where the Past Begins, bestselling author of The Joy Luck Club and The Valley of Amazement Amy Tan is at her most intimate in revealing the truths and inspirations that underlie her extraordinary fiction. By delving into vivid memories of her traumatic childhood, confessions of self-doubt in her journals and heartbreaking letters to and from her mother, she gathers together evidence of all that made it both unlikely and inevitable that she would become a writer. Through spontaneous storytelling, she shows how a fluid fictional state of mind unleashed near-forgotten memories that became the emotional nucleus of her novels. Tan explores shocking truths uncovered by family memorabilia – the real reason behind an I.Q. test she took at age six, why her parents lied about their education, mysteries surrounding her maternal grandmother – and, for the first time publicly, writes about her complex relationship with her father, who died when she was fifteen. Written with candour and characteristic humour, Where the Past Begins takes readers into the idiosyncratic workings of her writer's mind, a journey that explores memory, imagination, and truth."

Amy Tan (Author), Amy Tan (Narrator)

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The Opposite of Fate: Memories of a Writing Life

"Delve into the stories from Amy Tan's life that inspired bestselling novels like The Joy Luck Club and The Valley of Amazement Amy Tan has touched millions of readers with haunting and sympathetic novels of cultural complexity and profound empathy. With the same spirit and humor that characterize her acclaimed novels, she now shares her insight into her own life and how she escaped the curses of her past to make a future of her own. She takes us on a journey from her childhood of tragedy and comedy to the present day and her arrival as one of the world's best-loved novelists. Whether recalling arguments with her mother in suburban California or introducing us to the ghosts that inhabit her computer, The Opposite of Fate offers vivid portraits of choices, attitudes, charms, and luck in action--a refreshing antidote to the world-weariness and uncertainties we all face today."

Amy Tan (Author), Amy Tan (Narrator)

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The Valley of Amazement

"New York Times bestselling author of The Joy Luck Club Amy Tan brings us her latest novel: a sweeping, evocative epic of two women’s intertwined fates and their search for identity—from the lavish parlors of Shanghai courtesans to the fog-shrouded mountains of a remote Chinese villageShanghai, 1912. Violet Minturn is the privileged daughter of the American madam of the city’s most exclusive courtesan house. But when the Ching dynasty is overturned, Violet is separated from her mother in a cruel act of chicanery and forced to become a “virgin courtesan.” Half-Chinese and half-American, Violet grapples with her place in the worlds of East and West—until she is able to merge her two halves, empowering her to become a shrewd courtesan who excels in the business of seduction and illusion, though she still struggles to understand who she is.Back in 1897 San Francisco, Violet’s mother, Lucia, chooses a disastrous course as a sixteen-year-old, when her infatuation with a Chinese painter compels her to leave her home for Shanghai. Shocked by her lover’s adherence to Chinese traditions, she is unable to change him, despite her unending American ingenuity.Fueled by betrayals, both women refuse to submit to fate and societal expectations, persisting in their quests to recover what was taken from them: respect; a secure future; and, most poignantly, love from their parents, lovers, and children. To reclaim their lives, they take separate journeys—to a backwater hamlet in China, the wealthy environs of the Hudson River Valley, and, ultimately, the unknown areas of their hearts, where they discover what remains after their many failings to love and be loved.Spanning more than forty years and two continents, The Valley of Amazement transports listeners from the collapse of China’s last imperial dynasty to the beginning of the Republic and recaptures the lost world of old Shanghai through the inner workings of courtesan houses and the lives of the foreigners living in the International Settlement, both erased by World War II. A deeply evocative narrative of the profound connections between mothers and daughters, imbued with Tan’s characteristic insight and humor, The Valley of Amazement conjures a story of inherited trauma, desire and deception, and the power and obstinacy of love. © 2013 by Amy Tan. ℗ 2013 Brilliance Audio, all rights reserved."

Amy Tan (Author), Amy Tan, Joyce Bean, Nancy Wu (Narrator)

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The Chinese Siamese Cat

"A naughty white kitten, Sagwa, comes from a long line of royal Chinese cats. Her mischief changes the spirit of a cruel magistrate and helps shape the future for her ancestors. This beautiful story illustrates why Siamese cats are really Chinese cats and why their faces, ears, paws, and tails turn darker as they grow up Read by the author, Amy Tan's light, airy voice enchants listeners of all ages with this charming bedtime story."

Amy Tan (Author), Amy Tan (Narrator)

Audiobook

The Joy Luck Club

"For decades, a quartet of Chinese women who have emigrated to San Francisco gather to eat dim sum, play mahjong, and talk—they call themselves the Joy Luck Club. Over the years, their stories have informed the lives of four daughters who feel the weight of family and world history on their shoulders. With wit and sensitivity, this novel explores the deep, complicated, and sometimes painful connections between mothers and daughters. Read by Amy Tan, this recording of The Joy Luck Club entices listeners to immerse themselves into the complex lives of eight women bound by heartbreak, history, friendship, and familial love."

Amy Tan (Author), Amy Tan (Narrator)

Audiobook

The Kitchen God's Wife

"For decades—in China and in San Francisco—Winnie Louie and Helen Kwong have kept each other's confidences, but those secrets are about to be revealed. Convinced that she is dying, Helen decides to celebrate the Chinese New Year by unburdening herself of hidden truths—not only hers, but those of Winnie and of Winnie's daughter, Pearl. So begins a series of comic misunderstandings and heartbreaking realizations about luck, loss, and trust—about the things a mother cannot tell her daughter, about the secret that daughters keep, and about the miraculous resiliency of love. Read by Amy Tan, this second novel by the author of The Joy Luck Club was a New York Times bestseller."

Amy Tan (Author), Amy Tan (Narrator)

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The Hundred Secret Senses

"Years after her Chinese half-sister assails her with ghost stories set in the mysterious world of Yin, Olivia—a young woman from San Francisco—finds herself in China. Looking for a way to reconcile her past with dreams for her future, Olivia's American assumptions are shaken by Chinese ghosts, but she also finds reasons to hope. Read by author Amy Tan, The Hundred Secret Senses unfolds a series of family secrets that question the connections between fate and chance, belief and hope, memory and imagination."

Amy Tan (Author), Amy Tan (Narrator)

Audiobook

Saving Fish from Drowning

"San Francisco art patron Bibi Chen has planned a journey of the senses along the famed Burma Road for eleven lucky friends. But after her mysterious death, Bibi watches aghast from her ghostly perch as the travelers veer off her itinerary and embark on a trail paved with cultural gaffes and tribal curses, Buddhist illusions and romantic desires. On Christmas morning, the tourists cruise across a misty lake and disappear. With picaresque characters and mesmerizing imagery, Saving Fish from Drowning gives us a voice as idiosyncratic, sharp, and affectionate as the mothers of The Joy Luck Club. Bibi is the observant eye of human nature—the witness of good intentions and bad outcomes, of desperate souls and those who wish to save them. In the end, Tan takes her readers to that place in their own heart where hope is found."

Amy Tan (Author), Amy Tan (Narrator)

Audiobook

The Moon Lady

"Three bored sisters on a rainy afternoon make wish after wish— for the rain to stop, to play in the puddles— something, anything. Capturing their attention, their grandmother recounts a mesmerizing childhood memory of a magical night long ago when secret wishes came true. She relates what happened when Ying-ying was seven and celebrating the Moon Festival in China. On that long-ago night of the Moon Festival, she encountered the Moon Lady, who granted the secret wishes of those who ask. This enchanting, magical tale— adapted from Amy Tan's bestseller The Joy Luck Club— is a story for all to treasure."

Amy Tan (Author), Amy Tan (Narrator)

Audiobook

Audiobooks Narrated by Amy Tan

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